Curiously, Pluto got its name in a typically political

Curiously, Pluto got its name in a typically political but sweet way.

In Britain, a curious little girl very interested in Greek and Roman mythology tells her grandfather that the newly discovered Planet X should be named Pluto after the god of the underworld. Particularly since it was so remote and cold. Her grandfather just happened to be friends with the folks over at the Lowell Observatory and it seemed a good fit, particularly since the first two letters are the initials of Percival Lowell.

So, what even got them thinking about taking another look at Pluto.

Well, last year, another planetary scientist named Michael Brown discovered what he believed to be the tenth planet, Xena. Brown claimed that Xena was rocky and icy cold like Pluto. However, his announcement called into question what exactly defines a planet as a planet.

To add to the challenge is the fact that Xena is slightly larger than Pluto.

Now, the astronomer gurus will need to make a decision not only about Xena but Pluto as well.

There’s even some talk that they might be just large chunks of rock floating out there in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune.

Can you imagine what this is going to do to the styrafoam ball industry? There won’t be any more use for that certain size ball that ends up hanging from clothes wire planet mobiles in countless classrooms throughout the world. And you won’t find them cut in half and stuck onto science foldout boards.

There’s been music written about Pluto.

There’s a Disney dog named after it.

Quite frankly, the thought of removing Pluto from our previously thought of schema of planets is disturbing - not to spit at science but to the romantic notion that somewhere out there, there are places of magic and mystery so far away that we’ll never fully understand them and perhaps don’t want to.