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Venetia Phair

 
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Venetia Phair
 
 
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Venetia Katherine Douglas Phair (née Burney) (born 1919) was the first person to suggest the name Pluto for the object discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930. At the time, she was 11 years old and lived in Oxford, England.

Burney was the daughter of Rev. Charles Fox Burney
Charles Fox Burney

Rev. Charles Fox Burney was Biblical studies at Oxford University, England.Charles was the son of Charles Burney, Paymaster Chief Royal Navy and his wife Eleanor Norton, daughter of the Rev....
, Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford, and his wife Ethel Wordsworth Madan, and granddaughter of Falconer Madan
Falconer Madan

Falconer Madan was Librarian of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.Falconer was the fifth son of George and Harriet Madan, born in Cam Gloucestershire....
 (1851–1935), Librarian of the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest library in Europe, and in England is second in size only to the British Library....
 of the University of Oxford
University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
.






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Venetia Phair
Venetia Katherine Douglas Phair (née Burney) (born 1919) was the first person to suggest the name Pluto for the object discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930. At the time, she was 11 years old and lived in Oxford, England.

Burney was the daughter of Rev. Charles Fox Burney
Charles Fox Burney

Rev. Charles Fox Burney was Biblical studies at Oxford University, England.Charles was the son of Charles Burney, Paymaster Chief Royal Navy and his wife Eleanor Norton, daughter of the Rev....
, Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford, and his wife Ethel Wordsworth Madan, and granddaughter of Falconer Madan
Falconer Madan

Falconer Madan was Librarian of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.Falconer was the fifth son of George and Harriet Madan, born in Cam Gloucestershire....
 (1851–1935), Librarian of the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest library in Europe, and in England is second in size only to the British Library....
 of the University of Oxford
University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
. Falconer's brother Henry Madan (1838–1901), Science Master of Eton
Eton College

Eton College, also known as Eton, is a world-famous British independent school for boys, founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England. It was founded as the King's College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor....
, had in 1878 had suggested the names Phobos
Phobos (moon)

'Phobos' is the larger and closer of Mars ' two small natural satellites, the other being Deimos . It is named after the Greek mythology Phobos , a son of Ares ....
 and Deimos
Deimos (moon)

Deimos , is the smaller and outer of Mars? two natural satellite . It is named after Deimos , a figure representing dread in Greek Mythology. Its Astronomical_naming_conventions#Natural_satellites_of_planets is ....
 for the moon
Natural satellite

A natural satellite or moon is a celestial body that orbits a planet or smaller body, which is called the primary. Technically, the term natural satellite could refer to a planet orbiting a star, or a dwarf galaxy orbiting a major galaxy, but it is normally synonymous with moon and used to identify non-artificial satellites...
s of Mars.

On 14 March 1930, Falconer Madan read the story of the new planet's discovery in The Times
The Times

The Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register.The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of News International....
, and mentioned it to his granddaughter Venetia. She suggested the name Pluto
Pluto (mythology)

Pluto was the Roman god of the underworld, known in Latin as Tertius, the counterpart of the Greek Hades....
 — the Roman God of the Underworld who was able to make himself invisible — and Falconer Madan forwarded the suggestion to astronomer Herbert Hall Turner
Herbert Hall Turner

Herbert Hall Turner was a United Kingdom astronomer and seismologist. He was educated at Clifton College. He went onto a glittering acdemic career and won many honours....
, who cabled his American colleagues at Lowell Observatory
Lowell Observatory

Lowell Observatory is an astronomy observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Lowell Observatory is among the oldest observatories in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965....
. Tombaugh liked the proposal because it started with the initials of Percival Lowell
Percival Lowell

Percival Lawrence Lowell was a businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were Martian canal on Mars , founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Arizona, and formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death....
 who had predicted the existence of Pluto. On 1 May 1930, the name Pluto was formally adopted for this new celestial body.

Venetia grew up to be a teacher and married Edward Maxwell Phair. , she is 89 years old and living in Epsom
Epsom

Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, to the south of Greater London. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, and forms part of the suburbia that surrounds London....
. Only a few months before the reclassification of Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet
Dwarf planet

A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity but has not Clearing the neighbourhood of planetesimals and is not a natural satellite....
, with the debate going on about the issue, she said in an interview that "At my age, I've been largely indifferent to [the debate]; though I suppose I would prefer it to remain a planet."

The asteroid
Asteroid

Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids....
 6235 Burney
6235 Burney

6235 Burney is a minor planet that was discovered on November 14, 1987 by Seiji Ueda and Hiroshi Kaneda at Kushiro. It is named after Venetia Phair , who as a girl of eleven, first suggested the name of "Pluto " for the Pluto ....
 was named in her honour. The Student Dust Counter, an instrument on board the New Horizons
New Horizons

New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon , Nix , and Hydra ....
 spacecraft, is also named after her.