Pluto and Lowell Observatory

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.

Author: Kevin Schindler, and Will Grundy
Contributions by Annette & Alden Tombaugh, W. Lowell Putnam, and S. Alan Stern
Paperback: 177 pages
Publisher: The History Press (March 12, 2018)
Publication Date: March 12, 2018
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.3 x 9 inches

About the Authors:
Kevin Schindler is the historian at Lowell Observatory, where he has worked for 21 years. He regularly contributes articles about science and history to a variety of publications and writes a regular column, The View from Mars Hill, for the Arizona Daily Sun.

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.