"Not Farewell, but Fare Forward, Voyagers"

It was with tremendous sadness that I learned last week that Venetia Burney Phair, the 11-year-old girl who in 1930 first suggested the name Pluto for the newly-discovered planet, passed away in England at the age of 90. That’s one more person whom I will now never get the chance to meet. New Horizons Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern did get that opportunity in late 2006 after inviting Phair to the launch of New Horizons. Phair could not make the trip to Cape Canaveral, so instead Stern visited her in England, where he presented her with a plaque commemorating the use of her name on one of New Horizons' scientific instruments, the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter. That device was chosen to bear her name because it was built entirely by students, echoing Phair’s own student involvement in astronomy by naming Pluto and intended as an example to encourage young people to pursue an interest in science. The story of Phair’s naming of Pluto is told in a 13-minute film now available for purchase online. Titled “Naming Pluto,” it can be bought from this site: http://www.fatherfilms.com/shop . Stern describes Phair as “a thoroughly likeable, intelligent, and endearing woman.” He and ...