Re: Discovery of Pluto Reaches 75th Anniversary

From: Henry Spencer (henry_at_spsystems.net)
Date: 02/05/05 

Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 06:26:09 GMT

In article <1107557693.269232.187310@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
 <baalke@earthlink.net> wrote:
>http://www.lowell.edu/press_room/releases/recent_releases/PL_75_rls.html
>Eleven-year-old Venetia Burney from Oxford, England suggested the name.

A small correction: she was the *first* person *other than* Lowell
Observatory staff to suggest that particular name, according to Tombaugh's
account of how the name was chosen.

(He says that of the many suggestions for names, the three that were clear
favorites among astronomers in general and at Lowell in particular were
Minerva, Cronus, and Pluto. Minerva would probably have won, had it not
been recently given to an asteroid. Cronus would have been considered
seriously, had it not been initially proposed by "a certain detested
egocentric astronomer". Pluto was free of such complications, and had the
attractive bonus that it began with Percival Lowell's initials. Other
names were considered, but the bad example of Uranus -- which had three
different names before everyone settled on one -- encouraged picking a
name that was appropriate and had wide support, so it would stick.) 

-- 
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer
                                -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net

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