* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Venetia Katherine Douglas Phair

Blobrana · L

2010 celebrates the 80th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto and marks the 1st anniversary of Venetia Burney Phair, the most influential 11year old in the history of astronomy who, died on 30th April 2009, aged 90.
Venetia was a young schoolgirl living in Oxford, England in 1930, when she came up with the name Pluto for the newly discovered Planet X.
As a tribute to Venetia's extraordinary contribution and to its young discoverer, the American Clyde Tombaugh, Space Renaissance Education Chapter, in collaboration with Father Films, announce the launch of Naming X, a global online competition, to find the next influential student or school group with the creative and scientific talent to suggest a suitable name for a minor planet and a reason why.
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Blobrana · L

It's not often that an 11-year old is associated with a major event in the history of astronomy.
However, there must, sooner or later, be an exception to every rule. Such was the case with Venetia Burney.
Her story is as unlikely as the distant planet she put a name to.

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Blobrana · L

Venetia Burney Phair, 90, who as a child in England was credited with providing the name for Pluto, long regarded as the ninth planet, died April 30 at her home in Epsom, a town south of London. No cause of death was reported.

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Blobrana · L

Venetia Phair, who has died aged 90, had the distinction of being the only woman in the world to have named a planet; in 1930, as a girl of 11, she suggested the name Pluto for the enigmatic celestial body that had just been discovered, and which became (albeit only temporarily) the ninth planet in our solar system.

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