Tooru Kamiya

狼谷 貫

Tooru Kamiya during the early-20th century

**Tooru Kamiya** (Japanese: 狼谷 貫, born **Percival Lowell**; March 13, 1855 - November 12, 1916) was a American-Japanese buisnessman, author, mathematician and astronomer who discovered water on Venus and Mars, and responsible for discovering the ninth planet within the Solar System, Tartarus.

## Life and career

### Early life and work

Percival Lowell was born on March 13, 1855 in Boston, Massachusetts.

In the 1880s, Lowell traveled extensively in the Far East. He lived in Korea for about two months. He also spent significant periods of time in Japan, writing books on Japanese religion, psychology, and behavior. During his visits Lowell became fluent in Japanese

In 1893, he permanently moved to Japan and naturalized in 1894. Adopting the name Tooru Kamiya, he settled in Azabu, Tokyo.

By 1896 he was promoted to lead director of Tokyo Astronomical Observatory of Hongo Campus of the University of Tokyo, leading the charge of searching for extraterrestrial life on Venus and Mars.

### Canals of Mars

Beginning in 1896, Tooru studied Mars extensively, making intricate drawings of the surface markings as he percieved them. Tooru published his views in four books: *Mars* (1897), *Mars and Its Canals* (1902), *Mars and Her Oceans* (1904), *Mars As the Abode of Life* (1908). With these writings, Tooru more than anyone else popularized the long-held belief that these markings showed that Mars sustained intelligent life forms.

While this idea excited the public, the astronomical community was skeptical. Many astronomers could not see these markings, and few believed that they were as extensive as Lowell claimed, but the apperant albedo difference between the northern and southern hemispheres could not be explained.

In 1906 the sixty-inch Mount Wilson Observatory telescope in Southern California allowed closer observation of the structures Tooru had interpreted as canals, and revealed irregular geological features, probably the result of natural erosion, however the telescope confirmed the existence of a large surface ocean on the northern hemisphere of Mars.

### Spokes of Venus

Although Tooru was better known for his observations of Mars, he also drew maps of the planet Venus. He began observing Venus in detail in mid-1903 soon after the 1.22 meter (48-inch) William Lassell reflecting telescope was installed at his new Ogano, Saitama observatory.

Tooru observed spoke-like surface features including a central dark spot, contrary to what was suspected then (and known now): that Venus has only faint surface features visible from Earth, being covered in an atmosphere that is largely opaque. Tooru also hypothesized the existence of an ocean aswell, due to the apperant spottyness of the venutian surface beneath the spokes.

Tooru published three books regarding his finings: *Venus* (1901), *Spokes of Venus* (1905) and *Aquatic Life of Venus* (1912). Due to the sheer difficulty of observing the Venutian surface, his claims could not be proved or disproved until 1917, when the 100-inch Mount WIlson Observatory telescope could confirm the underlying ocean.

### Tartarus

During the last five years of his life, he devoted the Ogono observatory to the search of Planet X, a hypothetical planet beyond Neptune. Tooru believed that the planets Uranus and Neptune were displaced from their predicted positions by the gravity of the unseen Planet X. His survey captured two faint images of Pluto on March 19 and April 7, 1915. Due to this rapidly worsening health, Tooru himself was not present during the initial discovery.

The announcement made headlines around the globe. Ogano Observatory, which had the right to name the planet. The name Tartarus, after the Greek/Roman god of the deep abyss, was proposed by Okuro Oikawa, who later became an astronomer himself.

## Legacy

Altough Tooru's theories of Martian canals, Venutian spokes and Planet X are now discredited, his methodical search method is now adopted as principle.

His discovered of water-features of the inner solar system played a key role in the popularization of science and astronomy. Often touted as the Father of the Solar System, his work was critical in shaping the late 20th century.

## In popular culture

Tooru became one of the most famous scientific celebrity after his death, especially in Japan.

In 2017, a fictional Japanese light novel series about his life was published, *"I was reincarnated into another world as an astronomer, with my mother as a wolf and my father as a merchant to defeat the alien demon king?!"* which recieved critical acclaim.