The girl who named Pluto

by Sumana Saparamadu

You know what a planet is, don't you? It is a heavenly body revolving round the Sun. Planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Earth, where we live, is also a planet.

Who named these planets, Mercury and Venus?

Last week I found among my large collection of paper cuttings, a very interesting news item about a girl who named a planet. Venetia Barney is the only person in the world who can claim to have named a planet. She was only 11 years then.

On the morning of March 14, 1930, Venetia Barney was at breakfast with her grandfather Falenor Madan, a retired librarian. He was reading The Times newspaper. When he got to a news item about the discovery of a new planet, he told Venetia about it. The news item mentioned that the new planet had not yet been named.

Then Venetia promptly said, "Why not call it Pluto." Pluto was the God of the underworld.

Madan was very impressed with the name Pluto, and immediately after breakfast he went straight to his friend Herbert Hall Turner, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford and told him of his grand-daughter's suggestion. Prof. Turner agreed that Pluto was an excellent choice. He said he would immediately forward the suggestion to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. It was at this observatory that the new planet was discovered by a young astronomer Clyde Tombough.

Venetia Burney or her grandfather heard nothing about her suggestion to name the planet.

Then on May 1, 1930 it was announced that the name 'Pluto' was formally adopted as the name of the new planet.

When the news was published in the newspapers, Madan rewarded his grand daughter with a five pound note. Venetia Burney has been famous ever since as "The girl who named a planet."

When the news item that is among my newspaper cuttings appeared, on February 14, 2011, Venetia Burney was then Mrs. Venetia Phair, and a retired school teacher 87-years-old, living in Epson, Surrey.