Posted
on July 11, 2015
Once
upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in Oxford, England.
Her great uncle was a Science Master at a highly respected prep
school – and he had been the one to suggest the names that we now
use for the two tiny moons of the planet Mars: Phobos and Deimos.
When
an American astronomer discovered a new, ninth planet of the solar
system, there was a lot of excitement. The little girls grandpa told
her about the discovery. She suggested a name for the newly
discovered planet:
Pluto.
The
little girl thought Pluto would be a great name because the other
planets had names of the Roman Gods and Goddesses (such as Jupiter
and Venus), and Pluto was the name of the Roman God of the
Underworld. Also, the newly discovered planet was hard to spot –
which made the name Pluto even better, since this particular god
could make himself invisible. Another reason the suggestion was good
was that astronomer Percival Lowell had predicted that there was
another planet, which he called Planet X – and the name Pluto
starts with Percival Lowell's initials.
The
little girl's grandpa did what most grandpas would NOT do – he sent
his granddaughter's suggestion to an astronomer, who sent the
proposed name on to other astronomers.
Many
of the astronomers loved the little girl's suggested name, and soon
everyone knew the new planet by its even newer name, Pluto.
The
little girl who made the suggestion was of course Venetia Burney
(later Venetia Phair), who was born on this date in 1918. She made
her famous suggestion when she was just 11 years old.
Burney
went on to study mathematics, and as an adult she became an
accountant, an economics teacher, and a math teacher.
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NASA's
New Horizons spacecraft
will reach Pluto and its moons
in just a
couple of days!
Stay tuned for discoveries!
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on this date:
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