Percival Lowell was a well-known businessman, mathematician, author and astronomer. He is the founder of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. He is also known for popularizing the idea that Mars had life. His ideas have had an immense impact on science fiction, as well as science itself. Not only that, Lowell's search for "Planet-X" led to the discovery of Pluto. On March 13, 1855, Percival Lowell was born in Cambridge, to a wealthy Bostonian family. His parents were Augustus Lowell, a cotton company president and bank manager, and Katherine Bigelow Lawrence, daughter of Abbott Lawrence, a textile manufacturer and founder of the town of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Percival Lowell was highly educated, having attended and graduated from Noble and Greenough School in 1872, as well as Harvard University, graduating in 1876 with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics. Interestingly, his graduation speech was about the formation of the solar system, which showed that he was already interested in astronomy then. He was later awarded honorary LL.D degrees by Amherst College in 1907 and Clark University in 1909. His brother, Abbot Lawrence Lowell, became president of Harvard, while his sister, Amy Lowell, helped introduce new poetry to America . Then he made the usual grand tour of Europe, although he traveled further than the others, as far as Syria. Once he completed college, Lowell worked in his family's textile business for six years. A lecture on Japan in 1882 inspired Lowell to travel to the Far East. In 1883 he served as foreign minister at the Korean Special Mission, part of the first Korean diplomatic mission. He later wrote numerous books on the Far East. Books by Percival Lowel... half of the paper... the first two letters of the name Pluto were chosen as the astronomical symbol of the planet. Unfortunately, we later learn that Lowell's Planet X theory is incorrect. In 1978, Pluto's mass was discovered with the discovery of Charon, Pluto's moon. Pluto, being a small planet, would have weak gravity. Therefore, this reduced gravity could not affect the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. The International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006. It was also later revealed that the strange orbits of Uranus and Neptune were due to the incorrect value of Neptune's mass. In conclusion, none of Percival Lowell's theories have ever been correct. However, he left a legacy for future space pioneers, as well as being a symbol of hope. He also left a legacy with the public, who never seem to have shaken off the idea that there is life on Mars.