Everyone wants to find a planet that humans can live on. It would be great. Imagine. You could have a name that lives longer than anything else. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
Mercury: The Ancient Roman messenger of the Roman gods. Mercury was named Mercury because it takes only 88 days to orbit the sun, so it was named after the messenger of the Romans gods, who was famed for his speed.
Venus: Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It was named this way because it had been associated with love and beauty for hundreds of years.
Earth: Named after the Anglo-Saxon word for soil and ground, erda, which is basically what Earth is made out of: earth.
Mars: Named after the Roman god of war because it’s blood red colour reminded many people, before the Ancient Romans and the Romans themselves, of blood and war.
Jupiter: It has been known since very ancient times, like Venus. While it had many names throughout history, the ancient Romans had the greatest influence over things like astronomy. To the Romans it was the largest and most prominent thing in the night sky, therefore it had to be the most powerful, therefore their King of the Gods, which was Jupiter.
Saturn: Named after the Roman god of agriculture, according the myth Saturn taught his people how to farm the land. Saturn was also the god of time, which is perhaps why the Romans the named the slowest (orbiting the sun) out of the five bright planets after him. Saturn is the father of Jupiter.
Uranus: Was discovered by William Herschel on March 13, 1781. As he lived in England he originally wanted to name it after his patron, King George III. But the international astronomical community didn’t think much of it. They decided to continue the idea of naming planets after Greek and Roman Gods; it was named Uranus, who was the father of Saturn.
Neptune: It was discovered by Urbain Le Verrier, who claimed the right to name the planet he found and named it Neptune, the Roman god of the Sea, linked to the planet’s blue colour.
Your Planet: What would you name it? After your surname, another Roman or Greek god, or maybe a god of your own religion, it could be anything, and it would live on for hundreds if not thousands of years, century to century, generation to generation, decade to decade, year to year...
***
Leonardo Renda, amateur scientist working for a company that focused on finding planets that could support human life, the International Planet Finders. Leonardo was a good scientist and he could have had a higher up job in the IPF, but he had one major problem, he wasn’t blind, he didn’t have a mental health problem, he wasn’t crazy, he just had a large obsession with pigs. He would see them in the clouds, draw them on his papers, or make ridiculous points including them. Thanks to this he misses many things from changing the way we see space to discovering how to draw that sun’s exact colour: thanks to pinky pigs.
He was a small man, he had black bouncy hair and brown eyes. He had a smooth voice but he could get agitated over the slightest thing, especially if it mentioned something bad about pigs. Leonardo regularly wore a watch, it was one of the things he had OCD about, the other things he had OCD about were closing doors and leaving everything organised, he was also allergic to bananas, luckily he always remembered it thanks to his impressive memory. He was 28 years old but he looked younger, about 23 or 24. Even with his good looks, Leonardo lived alone.
It was a normal Saturday night Leonardo was sitting in his small garden behind his pretty house, looking into the starry night sky, there were few clouds, but Renda couldn’t help noticing one that looked like a pig lying down through his telescope, his attention was then drawn to the bright star next to it. He had never seen it before and he was pretty sure that a star this bright would have had a special mention on the IPF’s records. It was so bright that someone could have been shining a torch onto the face of his telescope, but that couldn’t be possible because his telescope was zooming in not out and the star didn’t fill his whole telescopic vision.
He decided to ring his boss, who would probably still be at the place where he worked, so he would have access to the main telescope and the company log of stars and planets. His boss was called Laurence Nazlou and he was a French expert on planets, he was very arrogant, tall and pompous.
“Hellooo Leonardo.” Laurence rolled his R’s magnificently, “Found any flying pigs today?” He laughed at his own joke loudly, Leonardo could hear him through his iPhone.
“No, I think he have found a planet, I mean, one really close to us.” Leonardo said, annoyed.
There was a slight breeze in the air, the clouds were starting to disappear.
“Oh really?” Laurence was disbelieving,
“Where is it then?”
Leonardo gave him the co-ordinates.
“Is it a coincidence that there is a strange cloud next to it?” Laurence looked into the view the telescope was giving him, Leonardo was right, for some reason there was a planet that had managed to stay hidden for centuries in the Solar System.
“Yes, I-“
Laurence interrupted him,
“I do believe that is a planet! Wow! Who would have though it? Leonardo Renda, a true planet finder. If that planet has water on it then it could support life; it is in a good location, not to warm, or cold. Or too far away, we could even VISIT it!!”
“Wow. That would be amazing. If we do-“
Again, Laurence interrupted him:
“IPFLR-01, International Planet Finders Leonardo Renda 01. Or, IPF-8,er..3.”
“Actually, if the planet can support life then I think I get the honour of naming it, I seem to remember that from somewhere.” Leonardo pointed out happily.
“Oh yes. Well, what’ll it be called?” Laurence asked disappointedly.
“Hmmm. I was thinking of: Fly Pig, or: Pig Land.” But after Laurence's stifled laughs he managed to think sensibly for once.“How about Renda?”
“Like, render him unconscious?” Laurence was puzzled.
“No!” Leonardo laughed,” Like my surname.”
“Oh, I see. Well, good idea. I will do further analysis of Renda.”
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Renda, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
“And I will email the Prime Minister to tell him about my brilliant discovery! And of course have a look at my Renda one more time.” Leonardo smiled at the jealousy Laurence would be feeling right now as he put his eye to the telescope.
He gasped in shock. Renda had disappeared! A shiny planet like that couldn’t just hide behind a cloud. It had totally disappeared.
“Renda has disappeared!” Leonardo said loudly into the phone.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Laurence wanted to hang up and study this planet more closely, then get home as quickly as possible. “It’s probably just gone behind a cloud or something. If Renda can support life I foresee a promotion for you Renda.”
“Good. But all the clouds have-“
“Don’t worry Renda.” Laurence said firmly as he hung up.
Leonardo looked into the star-filled sky, the sky without Renda.
“How on earth did it turn invisible? Now I think about it, that is probably how it stayed invisible for all these years. But how? How, how, how? It’s closer to us than Mars. How has gravity not brought it to us; it is tiny!
How, how, how?”
Mercury, Venus, Earth, RENDA.
YOU ARE READING
Renda
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