The Girl Who Named a Planet
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Rea,
Can you imagine sitting at breakfast one morning and suddenly coming up with a name that millions of people would use for the next hundred years? That’s exactly what happened to an 11-year-old girl named Venetia Burney one morning in 1930.
On February 18th of that year, astronomers at the Lowell Observatory had just announced an exciting discovery - a new planet beyond Neptune! Newspapers around the world were buzzing with the news, and everyone was wondering what this mysterious new world would be called. The very next morning, Venetia was eating breakfast with her grandfather in Oxford, England, when he showed her the newspaper article about the discovery.
As Venetia looked at the grainy photograph of this tiny dot in space, she remembered something from her lessons about Roman mythology. The other planets were named after Roman gods - and Pluto, the god of the underworld, seemed perfect for this dark and distant world. Without hesitation, she suggested to her grandfather, “Why not call it Pluto?”
Her grandfather, Falconer Madan, worked at the famous Bodleian Library and happened to know someone at the Royal Observatory. He was so impressed with Venetia’s idea that he immediately sent a letter suggesting the name. What happened next was extraordinary - out of thousands of suggestions from around the world, the astronomers chose Venetia’s name! They loved how it connected to mythology like the other planets, and even noticed that the first two letters, “PL,” were the initials of Percival Lowell, who had predicted the planet’s existence.
For suggesting the name, Venetia received a five-pound note (about $160 in today’s money) - and more importantly, she became the first person in history to name a planet. Even though Pluto was later reclassified as a dwarf planet, her contribution to astronomy lives on. In fact, when she grew up, astronomers honored her by naming an asteroid “6235 Burney.”
Isn’t it amazing how one person’s suggestion, even a young person’s, can make such a lasting impact? Just like Venetia didn’t hesitate to share her idea, those podcast suggestions you send to Forever Ago are exactly the kind of creative thinking that can lead to wonderful discoveries. Sure, not every suggestion gets picked - Venetia’s grandfather sent her idea to exactly the right person at exactly the right time. But imagine if she had kept quiet that morning at breakfast? Pluto might have ended up with a completely different name!
Love, Abba
