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The 1930's
 Planet X Becomes Pluto

Planet X Becomes Pluto
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.48

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    secondly, lengthy, planetary, comet, irrigate, astronomy, orbit, ninth, probe, wealthy, maintain, lastly, truth, exploration, gravity, prove
     content words:    Percival Lowell, When Shaparelli, Clyde Tombaugh, Lowell Observatory, Planet X., International Astronomical Union, Kuiper Belt, Astronomical Union, New Horizons

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Planet X Becomes Pluto
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     Percival Lowell became interested in astronomy in the late 1800's. He studied the findings of Shaparelli. Shaparelli was sure that he had found life on the planet Mars. He concluded that the lines he saw on the planet through his telescope were canals. When Shaparelli began to lose his eyesight, Percival Lowell took over his pursuit of information. Lowell was a wealthy man. He had done well in business. He built his own observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
 
2     Lowell concluded that there was life on Mars. He believed that it sustained itself by using water from the Martian icecaps to irrigate land. He maintained that the water was brought to the land through canals the Martian beings had created. He spent the rest of his life trying to prove his theory.
 
3     One of the secondary ideas which came from Lowell's observations was his theory that Planet X existed at the far edge of the solar system beyond the last known planet, Neptune. He brought this idea to the public in 1905. He died before his theory could be proved.

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