Day of Infamy

Four years ago today, the International Astronomical Union redefined the term “planet” so as to exclude Pluto as a member of our solar system’s elite.

I am still wearing my black arm band.





Incidentally, over a thousand names were proposed in the weeks following the planet’s 1930 photographic discovery. These include all the usual Greek suspects:

Cronus, Persephone, Erebos/ Erebus, Atlas, Prometheus, Minerva, Zeus, Artemis, Perseus, Vulcan, Tantalus, Bacchus, Apollo

As well as deities from other religions:

Odin, Osiris

Some suggestions I can’t find definitions to:

Zymal, Idana (maybe goddess Diana typo’d?)

Proper names were also thrown in the mix:

Percival, Constance, or Lowell (all suggested by Constance Lowell, wife of astronomer Percival, who devoted much time and effort to finding Planet X)

Anyway, “Pluto” was suggested by an 11-year-old schoolgirl whose grandfather was friends with one of the leading British astronomers at Oxford. Due to the coincidence that traditional nomenclature, which abbreviated a planet’s name to its first two letters, referenced Mr. Lowell, the suggestion quickly snowballed into reality.