2010 celebrates the 80th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto and marks the 1st year anniversary of Venetia Burney Phair’s death, 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. Venetia was interested in classical mythology as well as astronomy and considered the name, that of the Roman god of the Underworld, appropriate for such a presumably dark and cold world. To celebrate her insight, and the global endeavour that is astronomy, a new competition has been launched: ‘Naming X’, to find the next influential student or school group with the creative and scientific talent to suggest a suitable name (and reasons for it) should the same opportunity of naming a planetary or celestial body arise, like it did for Venetia.
More info and winners: http://venetiaburneyphair.blogspot.com/p/competition.html
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