Venetia Burney Phair, aged 11
“Naming X” is an online competition in which young people around the world were asked to come up with a suitable name for a minor planet and a reason why.
The competition honours Venetia Burney Phair, who named the minor planet Pluto in 1930 when she was aged 11.
The winning names in the three categories of the contest are:
- “Glissade“, suggested by Erica Reed (10)
- “Erytheia“, by Nathan Philips (15)
- “Virgil” in the groups/schools category, by McKinney High School, USA
Pluto was originally classified as a planet, but in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined the term “planet” for the first time.
This definition excluded Pluto as a planet, and added it as a member of the new category “dwarf planet” or minor planet.
Learn more
Learn how Venetia Burney Phair came up with the name for Pluto when she was a schoolgirl
Read more about the astronomy competition on its blog
