Venetia Burney, the little girl who had the idea to name the first trans-Neptunian planet after Pluto, the god of the underworld, was still alive when the mission that would explore it up close departed. Venetia Burney died in 2009, at the age of 90, just six years before the probe’s arrival at Pluto. One of the probe’s instruments, and a crater on the planet, Burney Crater, are named after her.
