Now I’m curious: How publicised was Pluto’s discovery in 1930? Did the public care? Would Earhart likely have learnt about it before she vanished in 1937?
They were basically calling it the great American scientific discovery at the time. Which is probably why some people were so loath to accept the “demotion.”
Now I’m curious: How publicised was Pluto’s discovery in 1930? Did the public care? Would Earhart likely have learnt about it before she vanished in 1937?
They were basically calling it the great American scientific discovery at the time. Which is probably why some people were so loath to accept the “demotion.”
Well, it was definitely in a lot of newspapers: https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=ninth+planet+discovered&tbs=,bkt:s,cdr:1,cd_min:1+jan+1929,cd_max:31+dec+1931&num=100
Angela Collier did a video about the whole fiasco from a physicists prospective which is fun https://youtu.be/TwCbMJmgShg
Iirc she talks about how it’s kinda BS, caused public outrage, and might have harmed science communication in the mind of the public.