2006-08-31 - 5:33 p.m.
The solar-system object formerly known as a planet, named "Pluto" (eat your heart out "artist formerly known as Prince") has been in the news recently. Pluto was demoted from "planet" to "proto-planet". Pluto was not big enough to make itself into a sphere under its own gravity.
It is not clear who named the planet "pluto" but I heard there was a contest to name it and a little girl sent in her entry for Pluto and won. That contest was run by some Italian Astronomers who confirmed the original discovery of Pluto by an American amateur astronomer in the 1920's or 1930's. Before this contest Pluto had been a name people actually had (like Bob, John, or Whetherfordington), and it was descended from Roman mythical origin.
Anyway, Pluto has come to my attention again today: Pluto in reference to its very very very distant sister (true) planet, Mercury, on the other end of the solar system. What do they have to do with each other, you may ask?
Well, they have to do with each other via the classic rock band "Queen". Hmmm...interesting, you may be thinking. Do tell, do tell. Here is the association:
Freddy "Mercury" was the lead singer of Queen. Therein, we have the Mercury reference. Freddy's parents (Mr. and Mrs. Bulsara) were people who practiced the religion, Zoroastrianism, which is of Persian descent, but they are among the Zoroastrian community of India, called the "Parsi"'s. Freddy was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania (Africa) because his parents were working for a British company there. His parents were true to their ancestral origins and decided to name him according to their beliefs. So his parents actually named him "Farrokh Pluto Bulsara". And therein we have the reference to the planet "Pluto". So Farrokh switched planets when he adopted the artistic name Freddy "Mercury". He was originally "Pluto".
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