While a young researcher working for the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tombaugh was given the job to perform a systematic search for a trans-Neptunian planet ( also called Planet X ), which had been predicted by Percival Lowell and William Pickering.

He said he became interested in the concept after reading a translation of the work of Percival Lowell as a child.

Before the Mariner 4 spacecraft arrived at Mars in July 1965 and dispelled some of the more exotic theories about the planet, the conventional image of Mars was shaped by the observations of the astronomers Giovanni Schiaparelli and Percival Lowell.

* In Mass Effect ( 2007 ), an expedition launched by the European Space Agency discovers an ancient cache of advanced technology leftover from an alien race known as the Protheans ( The capitol of Mars is called " Lowell city " probably named after Percival Lowell who fueled the believe in possibility of alien structures on Mars ).

* 1916 – Percival Lowell, American amateur astronomer ( b. 1855 )

Percival Lowell, originator of the Planet X hypothesis

The search began in the mid-19th century and culminated at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's quest for Planet X. Lowell proposed the Planet X hypothesis to explain apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the gas giants, particularly Uranus and Neptune, speculating that the gravity of a large unseen ninth planet could have perturbed Uranus enough to account for the irregularities.

In 1894, with the help of William Pickering, Percival Lowell, a wealthy Bostonian, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Constance Lowell, Percival Lowell's widow, subsequently embroiled the observatory in a long legal battle to secure its million-dollar portion of Lowell's legacy for herself, which meant that the search for Planet X could not resume for several years.

The decision to name the object Pluto was intended in part to honour Percival Lowell, as his initials made up the word's first two letters.

Percival Lawrence Lowell ( March 13, 1855 – November 12, 1916 ) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars, founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death.

Percival Lowell was a descendant of the Boston Lowell family.

Books by Percival Lowell on the Orient include Chosön: The Land of the Morning Calm ( 1886, Boston ), Noto: An Unexplored Corner of Japan ( 1891 ) and Occult Japan, or the Way of the Gods ( 1894 ); the latter from his third and final trip to the region.

* November 12 – Percival Lowell, American astronomer ( b. 1855 )

* March 13 – Percival Lowell, American astronomer ( d. 1916 )

Based on this and other evidence, the idea that Mars was inhabited by intelligent life was put forward by a number of prominent scientists around the turn of the century, notably American astronomer Percival Lowell.

The idea of intelligent Martians was popularized by Percival Lowell and in fiction, especially by Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter ( Barsoom ) series, H. G.

In 1894, Massachusetts astronomer Percival Lowell hired A. E. Douglass to scout an ideal site for a new observatory.

The background of Mars presented in the novel, as a desert planet crisscrossed by giant canals built by an ancient civilization to bring water from the polar ice caps, is a common scenario in science fiction novels of the early 20th century, and was actually put forward as a plausible theory by some astronomers around the turn of the century, notably Percival Lowell mentioned in the novel.

* Amy Lowell ( 1874 – 1925 ), poet, critic, publisher, and sister of Abbott Lawrence and Percival Lowell

* Percival Lowell ( 1855 – 1916 ), author, astronomer, founder of Lowell Observatory, and brother of Amy and Abbott Lawrence Lowell

Cleghorn is featured prominently in Canadian author Paul Quarrington's 1987 book King Leary, as the on-ice rival to protagonist Percival Leary.

* Richard Percival Lister, ( R. P. Lister ) British metallurgist, author, poet and painter

John the younger, known within his family as The Boston Rebel, and later as The Roxbury Farmer for his love of agriculture and support of botanical studies, produced the clan line that included businessmen ( John Amory Lowell, Augustus Lowell, and Ralph Lowell ), federal judges ( John Lowell and James Arnold Lowell ) and siblings ( author and innovator Percival Lowell, Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell, and poet Amy Lowell ).

It was founded by astronomer Percival Lowell, and run for a time by his third cousin Guy Lowell of Boston's well-known Lowell family.

Among the most fervent supporters of the artificial-canal hypothesis was the American astronomer Percival Lowell, who spent much of his life trying to prove the existence of intelligent life on the red planet.

Asaph Hall, Jr. ( 1859-1930 ) became an astronomer, Samuel Stickney Hall ( 1864-1936 ) worked for Mutual Life Insurance Company, Angelo Hall ( 1868-1922 ) became a Unitarian minister and professor of mathematics at the US Naval Academy, and Percival Hall ( 1872-1953 ) became president of Gallaudet University.

Despite this, in 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization.

His siblings included the poet Amy Lowell, the astronomer Percival Lowell, and Elizabeth Lowell Putnam, an early activist for prenatal care.

Although ETH, as a unified and named hypothesis, is a comparatively new concept-one which owes a lot to the saucer sightings of the 1940s – 1960s, it can trace its origins back to a number of earlier events such as the now discredited Martian canals and ancient Martian civilization promoted by astronomer Percival Lowell, popular culture including the writings of H. G. Wells and fellow science fiction pioneers such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, who likewise wrote of Martian civilizations, and even to the works of figures such as the Swedish philosopher, mystic and scientist Emanuel Swedenborg, who promoted a variety of unconventional views that linked other worlds to the afterlife.

Morse was a friend of astronomer Percival Lowell, who inspired interest in the planet Mars.

This vision of Mars was based on the work of the astronomer Percival Lowell, whose ideas were widely popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Lasswitz kept closer to the description by the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, though more so to Percival Lowell, than did H. G. Wells in his The War of the Worlds, or Edgar Rice Burroughs in his stories of Barsoom, or the lesser-known Edwin Lester Arnold in his Gulliver of Mars novel, other science fiction stories of that era dealing with that planet — and which were all written after Lasswitz's book.

| 6916 Lewispearce || 1992 OJ || Lewis Percival Pearce, Son of Australian amateur astronomer, Andrew Pearce *

In 1894, Bostonian astronomer Percival Lowell became convinced that the planets Uranus and Neptune had slight discrepancies in their orbits.

* Percival Lowell, astronomer and businessman, Room 21

The current trustee of Lowell Observatory is William Lowell Putnam III, grandnephew of founder Percival Lowell and son of long-time trustee Roger Putnam.

Most of the area's land had been granted to Sir Percival Willoughby, and one of Carbonear's first residents was Nicholas Guy, co-founder of the first British colony in Canada at Cuper's Cove ( now Cupids ), founder of the Bristol's Hope Colony ( now Harbour Grace ), and father of the first English child born in Canada.

* Thomasine, Lady Percival, née Thomasine Bonaventure ( c. 1470-c. 1530 ), English benefactress and founder of a school

* Percival Proctor Baxter, Former Governor of Maine and founder of Baxter State Park

He first went to Lowell Observatory in 1902 when invited by Percival Lowell and Lampland was closely involved with Lowell

Eldest son Percival Lowell wrote several books on the Far East and on the planet Mars, and founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

As Percival Lowell's third cousin, Guy became the sole trustee of the Lowell Observatory after his cousin's death in 1916.

Percival Lowell mausoleum at Lowell Observatory.