The Girl Of Pluto

In the morning of 14th of March, 1930, an eleven year old little English girl, Venetia Phair was sitting at the breakfast table with her grandfather, Falconer Madan, who was totally absorbed reading the paper 'The times'. He was a retired librarian. The article that so captured his attention was about a discovery: a photo of a planet further than the Neptune , that still had no name. It's existence had been postulated at the end of the 19th century and many intents had been made to photograph it since 1906. Falconer Madan was reading the news aloud to his granddaughter who, without hesitating at all, suggested 'Pluto' as the name for the new planet. An excellent name for a huge baby planet, the furthest from the sun, so dark and melancholy, thought Madan, fascinated by the quick wit of his little granddaughter. He was more than impressed, as there had been no more classic names in the mythology left not yet used. A few days later Madan went to the house of his friend, Hall Turner, professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford, and one of the leaders of the world search of an astronomic map. Turner had travelled to London to speculate the matter of the new planet with some interested parties, so Madan left him a note with the proposed name. Turner contacted him saying he considered the name quite adequate, and had sent a telegram to Lowell Observatory. In May 1930 the name of Pluto was formally adopted for the new planet. It was chosen for several reasons, but the most outstanding was because it's the name of one of the Roman gods, same as those of the rest of the planets. There were other name candidates: like Zeus, Atlas and Persefone, all discarded. When the election of the name was made public, the very proud grandfather awarded Venetia with a £5 note, a lot of money in 1930. In 2006, Pluto was taken out from the list of the International Astronomic Union and classified as a 'dwarf planet'. Venetia Phair went on to become a professor herself. She died a in 2009 at the age of 90, in her home in Surrey, England. Tags:Pluto,Planet

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