Post #1343650
2026-03-29 22:51 UTC
What I love about Pluto is Percival Lowell thought that to account for an anomaly in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune there must be another planet nearby large enough to disrupt their orbits. So his assistant Clyde Tombaugh pointed his telescope to a likely spot where the planet could exist and found Pluto, which was perplexing because it was too small. (1/3)
Replies (1)
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@Grovewest@mstdn.social 2026-03-29 22:51
Regardless the discovery made the discovers famous in no small part due to the NYT hilariously repeating Lowells statements of certainty. It was only later that someone, after centuries of assuming it's correctness, checked the math used re the orbits and discovered it was wrong. The anomaly doesn't exist. It should remain a planet to remind us of the way hubris, money, delusions and celebrity, while not part of the scientific method, continue to distort it's orbit. (2/3)