Flying Piano Discovers Dog.

On January 19, 2006, the New Horizons interplanetary space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to discover who Pluto really is. At the time of the launch, Pluto was the ninth planet from the sun in our solar system. Some nine months later, on September 13, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially reclassified Pluto as a minor or dwarf planet. The hue and cry has not abated to this day, and it is reported that the New Horizons launch team has never accepted the diminished status of their goal.

New Horizons is about the size of a flying piano, with additional bells, whistles and assorted gadgetries – of course. On July 14, 2015, just over two months ago, the flying piano passed Pluto and the pictures were snapped. Many pictures were snapped. Because of the distance and technology involved, those shots are being rationed back to earth. They show an incredible and unsuspected landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Curiously, in these pictures there appear to be vast regions of lighter colored dunes. It is not known if these dunes are composed of sand or ice particles; and, on a planet with no known winds, it is not known how dunes could have formed. Nonetheless, dunes are there to be seen; and those dunes — of whatever origins they may be — form bright areas. One of those areas has an interesting, intriguing and perhaps unsuspected outline.

On March 24, 1930 (less than a month after the discovery of the celestial object on February 18, 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh), the new planet was named Pluto by eleven-year-old Venetia Burney in a contest she gracefully won. In ancient Greek mythology, Pluto ruled the deep earth, while his brother Poseidon ruled the sea and his other brother Zeus ruled the sky. Young Venetia said she chose the name Pluto because the planet was dark and far away like the mythological ruler of the underworld.

At the time of its naming and until the recent fly-by, the planet Pluto was little more than a smudge on the end of a telescope with no discernible surface features – or so it was thought.

Enter Pluto the dog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pluto is one of Disney’s biggest stars. He is Mickey Mouse’s pet, and he first appeared in the film The Chain Gang in September 1930. At that time Mickey’s dog was not called by a name. In fact, Minnie Mouse called the kind canine Rover a month and a half later – but we don’t know if Minnie knew the dog’s real name. It wasn’t until 1931 in The Moose Hunt that Mickey in his endearing high-pitched voice called Pluto to his side and the world knew the true name of the lovable mutt.

Venetia Burney never deviated in her claim that she did not name the ninth planet after the dog Pluto. Supporting her position are the facts that Pluto did not make his cinematic appearance until about six months later and Mickey did not call his dog by the name Pluto until over a year later. Walt Disney, a close friend of both Mickey and Pluto, never said a word about when or why Mickey’s dog was named Pluto.

So, why was the dog named Pluto and why is the planet (now dwarf) named Pluto?

Enter the Lincoln-head cent, the current USA penny in wide circulation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This penny is called the Lincoln cent because the face on its surface is the face of President Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th President of the United States of America.

Now, take another look at the new picture of the planet Pluto and the face on its surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The face of the dog Pluto is on the planet Pluto, and the name of the dog Pluto is the name of the planet Pluto. Though its seems to defy logic, the only logical conclusion is that the planet, like the penny, is named for the face on its surface.

I do not know how this can be so, but I can see now that it is irrefutably so.

The flying piano discovered the dog on the planet that bears its name.

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With due respect to Ms. Venetia and Mr. Disney and their motives and motivations — whatever they may have been and whatever sources the two may have been privy to, the planet itself speaks louder than their words or their lack of words.

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After 85 year, we now know that Pluto is Pluto.

We may never know why, how or who.

But we know with new certainty:

The universe is truly an —

Amazing place.

 

Grandpa Jim