Pluto and Lowell Observatory: A History of Discovery at Flagstaff

by Mr. Kevin Scott Schindler

Overview

Pluto looms large in Flagstaff, where residents and businesses alike take pride in their community's most enduring claim to fame: Clyde Tombaugh's 1930 discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory. Percival Lowell began searching for his theoretical Planet X in 1905, and Tombaugh's eureka! experience brought worldwide attention to the city and observatory. Ever since, area scientists have played leading roles in virtually every major Pluto-related discovery, from unknown moons to the existence of an atmosphere and the innovations of the New Horizons spacecraft. Lowell historian Kevin Schindler and astronomer Will Grundy guide you through the story of Pluto from postulation to exploration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625859792
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	03/12/2018
Series:	Landmarks
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

Kevin Schindler is a native of Ohio but has lived in Flagstaff for more than twenty years, working for most of that time at Lowell Observatory. He graduated from Marietta College in 1987, majoring in geology and with a strong focus on paleontology. He currently serves as Lowell Observatory’s historian after two decades of leading the observatory’s education and outreach efforts. Schindler is an active member of the Flagstaff history and science communities. This is his fifth book. Dr. Will Grundy is a planetary scientist who studies icy planets, Kuiper belt objects and giant planet satellites. He is an editor for Icarus, the leading international scientific journal for Solar System studies, and heads the Surface Composition science theme team for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt. Dr. Grundy mostly grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. His undergraduate degree was in physics from Yale University, and his PhD in planetary sciences came from the University of Arizona.

Table of Contents

Foreword Annette R. Tombaugh Alden C. Tombaugh 7

Preface 11

Acknowledgements 15

Introduction W. Lowell Putnam 17

1 An Exercise in Trial and Error 19

2 Integrating the Search 36

3 Precision and Planning 51

4 Paydirt 64

5 Companion 80

6 Shadows in the Night 92

7 Setting the Stage for a Mission 104

8 Pluto Explored! 117

9 Home of Pluto 131

Epilogue: Is Pluto a Planet? Jeffrey Hall Gerard van Belle 143

Afterword S. Alan Stern 155

Timeline for Pluto and Flagstaff 157

Bibliography 163

Index 169

About the Authors 173