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From: ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: Re: StarDate: March 14 Naming Pluto
Message-ID: <1130@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-Mar-85 17:09:36 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.1130
Posted: Tue Mar 19 17:09:36 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Mar-85 04:26:29 EST
References: <1106@utastro.UUCP> <2178@pegasus.UUCP> <350@ihu1m.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 23

> --
> > I once heard that another reason Pluto was accepted
> > was because the first two letters are the initials of the person who
> > discovered the ninth planet.  Is this true ?  If it is, what is his
> > name ?
> 
> Percival Lowell--he calculated the orbital elements just after the turn
> of the century from perturbations of the orbit of Uranus not accountable
> by Neptune.  The actual telescopic discovery was made by Clyde Tombaugh
> in 1930.  The measurements from which Lowell (and others) attempted to
> find a ninth planet are known today to have exhibited  sufficiently
> large error to have made his calculations extremely lucky.  Lowell
> himself searched for the planet for ten years without success.
> -- 
"Extremely lucky" is an understatement.  The discovery of Pluto's moon
(recently confirmed by eclipse observations done right here in Texas)
indicate that the mass of Pluto is about 1/500 that of Earth.  This is
too small to have any observable effect on the orbit of any other planet.

"Don't argue with a fool.      Ethan Vishniac
 Borrow his money."            {charm,ut-sally,ut-ngp,noao}!utastro!ethan

*Anyone who wants to claim these opinions is welcome to them.*