Percival Lowell

Percival Lowell (1855-1916), American astronomer, who made significant observations of the planets. He is best known for his belief that there are canals on the surface of Mars and that these canals provide evidence for the existence of intelligent life there. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard University, Lowell traveled in Japan and Korea from 1877 until 1893 and later wrote books about East Asia. In 1894 he founded and became director of the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona. From 1902 until his death, he was nonresident professor of astronomy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He predicted the discovery of Pluto, which astronomers first observed in 1930 at the Lowell Observatory. Lowell's writings include Mars and Its Canals (1906), Memoir on a Trans-Neptunian Planet (1915), and The Genesis of the Planets (1916).