Today is the 106th anniversary of the birth of Venetia Katharine Douglas Burney, who was born in Banstead, England. She came from an educated family; her father was a professor at Oxford, her grandfather was the librarian at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and her uncle was Science Master at Eton.
Burney studied economics, and became an accountant. Later on she taught economics and math at several schools in London. When she was about 29 she married Edward Phair, who became the head of English at Epsom College in Surry, England.
Venetia Burney is memorialized by an asteroid called 6235 Burney, and a rock band from Massachusetts in the US (formed around 2006, which is important) was called The Venetia Fair after Burney. On the New Horizons spacecraft that visited Pluto, there was a scientific instrument called the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter. There’s even a crater on Pluto called the Burney Crater.
But Burney never worked in astronomy or space exploration, and for all of her adult life was simply an accountant and teacher. So why all the recognition? Well, it all started in 1984, when Burney was about 66. Sky and Telescope magazine published an article detailing events from 1930 that had never been publicized, and had been largely forgotten.
This is what happened. Venetia Burney was 11 at the time, and on March 14 her grandfather read about the discovery of a new planet. He told Venetia about it. The new planet was the farthest distance of any planet yet, and didn’t have a name. It had taken centuries before it was discovered because it was so distant it was nearly invisible. Venetia had been studying mythology, and remembered that there was a Roman god of the underworld who could also be invisible. So she suggested that the new planet (which was initially known as Planet X) should be named for that god — Pluto.
Burney’s grandfather thought it was an excellent suggestion, and sent it to his friend Herbert Turner, who was an astronomer. Turner liked it too, and sent it by cable to his colleague in the US, Clyde Tombaugh. Tombaugh also liked the idea, partly because it started with the letter P, as did Percival — as in Percival Lowell, who had predicted where the planet should be. And on May 1, 1930, the new planet was formally named Pluto — all because of Venetia Burney. She wasn’t the only one to suggest that name, but she was the first.
Although it would have made a great story, most of the news coverage at the time completely missed Burney’s role. The 1984 issue of Sky and Telescope was the first widely-seen mention of the whole affair.
Pluto is no longer considered a planet, of course, but that didn’t happen until 2006. While the debate about planet-or-dwarf was going on, Burney was in her 80s, but still available for an interview. She said “At my age, I’ve been largely indifferent [to the debate]; though I suppose I would prefer it to remain a planet.”
