Venetia Burney | |
|---|---|
 Venetia Burney aged 11 | |
| Born | Venetia Katharine Douglas Burney (1918-07-11)11 July 1918 |
| Died | 30 April 2009(2009-04-30) (aged 90) Banstead, England |
| Known for | NamingPluto |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Patrick Phair |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Falconer Madan, grandfather |
Venetia Katharine Douglas Burney (married namePhair, 11 July 1918 – 30 April 2009) was an English accountant and teacher. She is remembered as the first person to suggest the namePluto for thedwarf planet discovered byClyde Tombaugh in 1930. At the time, she was 11 years old.
Venetia Burney was the daughter of Rev.Charles Fox Burney,Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford, and his wife Ethel Wordsworth Burney (née Madan). She was the granddaughter ofFalconer Madan (1851–1935), Librarian of theBodleian Library of theUniversity of Oxford.[1] Falconer Madan's brother,Henry Madan (1838–1901), Science Master ofEton, had in 1878 suggested the namesPhobos andDeimos for themoons ofMars.[2]
On 14 March 1930, Falconer Madan read the story of the new planet's discovery inThe Times and mentioned it to his granddaughter Venetia. She suggested the namePluto – the Roman god of the Underworld, who was able to make himself invisible − and Madan forwarded the suggestion to astronomerHerbert Hall Turner, who cabled his American colleagues atLowell Observatory.Clyde Tombaugh liked the proposal because it started with the initials ofPercival Lowell, who had predicted the existence ofPlanet X, which they thought was Pluto because it was coincidentally in that position in space. On 1 May 1930, the name Pluto was formally adopted for the new celestial body.[3] Whether she was really the first person to propose the name has been doubted on plausibility grounds,[4] but the historical fact is that she was credited as such.
Most news coverage done at the time of the discovery of Pluto didn't mention her and the role she played in terms of naming Pluto was mostly forgotten about until a 1984 article fromSky & Telescope publicized her role.[5]
Burney was educated atDowne House School inBerkshire andNewnham College, Cambridge, where she studiedeconomics from 1938-41.[6] After graduation she became achartered accountant. Later she became a teacher ofeconomics and mathematics at girls’ schools in southwestLondon[7] teaching until she retired in the 1980s.[8] She was married to Edward Maxwell Phair from 1947 until his death in 2006. Her husband, aclassicist, later became housemaster and head of English atEpsom College. She died on 30 April 2009, aged 90, inBanstead in Surrey.[7] She was buried at Randalls Park Crematorium inLeatherhead in Surrey.
Only a few months before the reclassification of Pluto from a planet to adwarf planet, with a debate going on about the issue, she said in an interview, "At my age, I've been largely indifferent [to the debate]; though I suppose I would prefer it to remain a planet."[3]
Theasteroid6235 Burney and theBurney impact basin on Pluto were named in her honour.[9][10] In July 2015 theNew Horizons spacecraft was the first to visit Pluto and carried an instrument namedVenetia Burney Student Dust Counter in her honour.[11] Mihaly Horanyi,Principal Investigator for the instrument, andAlan Stern visited Mrs Phair at home to present her with a plaque, certificate, and spacecraft model.[12]
Massachusetts rock bandThe Venetia Fair came up with their name after reading about Venetia Phair, shortly after Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet.[13]
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