“My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” and “My Very Easy Memory Jingle Seems Useful Naming Planets” are commonly-used mnemonics to remember the order of the nine planets in our solar system: MVEMJSUNP. Although that all changed when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) changed the status of Pluto to dwarf planet back in the August of 2006, thus this beautiful rock is no longer a planet. Confusing right? “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” is now simply “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos” or “My Very Easy Memory Jingle Seems Useless Now”.
Pluto, originally considered to be the ninth planet from the Sun, was discovered on February 18th of 1930. The planet has five moons and orbits around the sun, similarly to all other eight planets.
How did Pluto get its name?
Pluto got its name when the Lowell Observatory opened up a worldwide call for suggestions. Venetia Burney, an eleven-year old girl is credited for the name, Pluto, as she had suggested it because of how the dark and distant planet resembled that of the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto.
Not only is Pluto no longer a “planet”, listen to this, Kimberly Johnson from National Geographic News announced that, “The former planet has been dubbed asteroid number 134340 to reflect its new status as a "dwarf planet.”
How did we find it?
If we could go back an eighty-some years to February 18 of 1930, we would be right at the discovery of Pluto, which happened to be a complete accident. Originally, an error in calculations, but by chance, Clyde William Tombaugh discovered Pluto through further searches. He was first hired back in 1929, and began the search for what soon would be the ninth planet. On Feb. 18, 1930, after studying the object for only a month, he discovered the distant planet. The staff of Lowell Observatory officially announced the discovery on March 13th later in the same year.
Clyde Tombaugh passed away on January 17th back in 1997. His ashes were sent out of this planet with New Horizons, a spacecraft from NASA that was launched in 2006. New Horizons is the fastest traveling spacecraft, reaching Jupiter by the following year, and eight years afterward, 2015, reaching Pluto. It is the closest that scientists have ever gotten to Pluto, close enough as to even get several photographs allowing them to further continue with their research. As part of a task assigned by NASA, New Horizons is expected to head even farther into the Kuiper Belt, as possibly even leave our solar system.
More on New Horizons!
Nicole Stetsyuk