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 Does Texas mark the place where the Galaxy got its start? Is it where the Universe was born?
Some zealous Texans might want to make you think so. The truth is, a few famous and not-so-famous Texas towns just borrowed their names from celestial bodies. We can't tell you why. Perhaps there's some truth to the rumor that Texas started it all.
Well, maybe not. Review these past and present Texas towns and tell us what you think.
PLUTO, TEXAS
 Pluto is near the Hill county line fifteen miles southwest of Waxahachie in western Ellis County. A post office was established there in 1894 and operated until 1905. In 1989 mail was received from Milford. The population was 200 in 1896, when three doctors practiced medicine in Pluto. The town had a store, a gin, a gristmill, and Methodist and Presbyterian churches. The population of Pluto remained stable at thirty-four from 1933 to 1944, after which a few new residents moved in. The name was still listed as a community in 1990.
MERCURY, TEXAS
 Mercury is on Farm Road 502 twenty-two miles northeast of Brady in northeastern McCulloch County. It was founded by J. A. Austin in 1904, soon after the Fort Worth and Rio Grande built through the area. Mercury became a shipping point for livestock. In 1914 the town had two banks, two general stores, and 550 residents. Mercury had two disastrous fires, one in 1919 and one in 1929, and was unable to recover from them. The town was bypassed when the Brownwood-Brady highway was rerouted in 1938. The Mercury post office was discontinued in the 1930s, and the community's population declined steadily over the next several decades. The Mercury schools were consolidated with the Rochelle district in the late 1940s. The community's population fell from 489 in 1933 to 360 in 1949; it reported 166 residents in 1988 and 1990.
VENUS, TEXAS
 Venus, formerly known as Gossip, is on State Highway 67 some twenty miles east of Cleburne in eastern Johnson County. Though a number of families settled in the area in the late 1850s, a community did not develop there until the late 1880s. At that time J. C. Smyth purchased eighty acres in an abandoned cornfield and laid off town lots. He named the new community Venus in honor of the daughter of a local physician. In 1888 a post office branch opened, and by 1890 Venus had ten residents and was at the junction of the International-Great Northern and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe railroads. When the drugstore threatened to close, Venus residents, fearing for their town, donated five dollars each to keep it open. By the late 1940s, however, the town had recovered somewhat, and reported 300 residents and nearly twenty businesses. In 1990 the population of Venus was 977, and the town had expanded into Ellis County.
SATURN, TEXAS
 Saturn, on State Highway 97 in northeastern Gonzales County, was originally called Possum Trot. The town secured a post office in 1902, but the office was closed in 1914. That year the settlement of some thirty-five residents included a general store, a gin, a blacksmith shop, a grocery, and a telephone connection. Population figures were thereafter unavailable until 1965, when fifteen residents were reported there. That population continued to be reported through 1990. The 1988 county highway map showed only a cemetery at the townsite.
MARS COMMUNITY, TEXAS
 Mars Community, just off Farm roads 773 and 2339 fifteen miles southeast of Canton in extreme southeast Van Zandt County, was once a retail trading center that produced cotton, vegetables, fruit, and nursery stock. According to various sources, the community, which was originally part of Henderson County, was settled by a group that included the eponymous brothers John and Henry Marrs. A post office, established in 1898, was discontinued in 1907, when mail was diverted to Murchison. The population dwindled from over 100 in 1915 to ten by 1931, increased to eighty-three by 1933, and was last recorded at fifty in 1945. State highway maps of 1936 showed a church, a seasonal industry, and scattered dwellings in the community, but by 1987 only a church remained to mark the townsite.
EARTH, TEXAS
 Earth, on U.S. Highway 70 and Farm Road 1055 in northwestern Lamb County, was established in 1924 by William E. Halsell who also founded Amherst. Originally Halsell called the place Fairlawn or Fairleen, but it was renamed Earth, supposedly for a sandstorm blowing when storekeeper and first postmaster C. H. Reeves had to come up with a name acceptable to postal authorities in Washington. Another story is that Reeves described the storm in a letter to Washington and received the reply: "The earth seems to move in your country. You will call the post office Earth." Still another story is that Halsell was impressed with the region's fertile soil and wanted the name Good Earth, which the post office shortened. The population of the community was 350 in 1930 and 600 in 1940, when the town had sixteen businesses. Earth was incorporated in 1947. Its population was reported as 1,104 in 1960, as 1,152 in 1970, and as 1,512 in 1980. The community's population increases over these last few decades made it unusual among West Texas towns. Its growth can be attributed in part to the improved production of local farmlands since irrigation was developed and to the establishment of Plant X, Southwestern Public Service's generating plant, three miles south, which employs a number of residents. A medical clinic opened at Earth in 1957 and a swimming pool in 1959. Earth is a grain and cotton center. In 1990 its population was 1,228; by 2000 it had dropped to 1,109.
Information about Texas towns shamelessly absconded from Handbook of Texas Online.
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