Thursday, February 14, 2013

"Help Astronomers Name Pluto’s Tiniest Moons"

Credit: NASA

Wired Science put up an article on a poll to name Pluto's newest-found moons: P4 and P5.
Here are the options:


The reasoning behind the greeky names is:
But beware: Naming astronomical objects isn’t as simple as deciding whether to name your dog “Dog.” According to conventions set forth by the International Astronomical Union, moons must not be given a name that’s already been bestowed upon an asteroid (though spelling variants are acceptable). And, in the Pluto system, the names must be mythological and related to the dominion of Hades.
Very scientific no?

How about starting to name astronomical objects after some other mythologies: Latin American, Indian, Chinese?

It's a bit confusing no? What are the guidelines to calling something "International"?

No comments:

The irony of the relationship between technology and idleness

One of the purposes of everyday technology (mobiles, laptops, etc.) is to make us more efficient. But we rarely use our 'freed up&...