![]() ![]() ![]() The symbol used for the planet Pluto was the monogram for Lowell’s initials, PL. The choice of name was partly inspired by the fact that the first two letters are the initials of Percival Lowell, wealthy mathematician and astronomer who had started the search for the mysterious Planet X in 1906, but died in 1916, before it had been discovered. It was christened Pluto, after the Roman version of the Greek god of the Underworld (Hades), as suggested by 11 year old Venetia Burney, an English schoolgirl. Pluto, the planet, dwarf planet, or trans-Neptunian Kuiper belt object, has had an interesting life since it first came to prominence in 1930, after its discovery by Clyde Tombaugh. Updated on the fifth anniversary of the New Horizons flypast, JPluto This post was written as the New Horizons spacecraft approached Pluto, back in July 2015. ![]()
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