Pluto's New Moons Named Nix and Hydra 110
Dean W, Armstrong writes "Pluto's two new satellites, previously identified as S/2005 P 2 and S/2005 P 1, received official names from the International Astronomical Union today. Nix and Hydra are named after the mother of Charon and the fierce nine-headed monster. The initials of the new names, N and H, call to mind the New Horizons spacecraft, on a fast trajectory to visit Pluto, just like Pluto's symbol calls to mind Percival Lowell."
Compromise (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Compromise (Score:2, Funny)
Mickey Mouse decided he wanted a divorce, so he went to see a lawyer. He ranted and ranted for hours about Minnie, and the lawyer (who was paid by the hour, of course) sat silently until Mickey had finished his tirade.
Once Mickey had calmed down a bit, the lawyer said "Well, Mr. Mouse, while I can certainly sympathize with you, I'm afraid you can't divorce your wife just because you think she's a bit strange."
Mikey became enraged - he jumped up on the lawyer's
Re:Compromise (Score:2)
Re:Compromise (Score:2)
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscrip
Did you ever notice... (Score:2)
Re:Did you ever notice... (Score:1)
Must remember not to holiday there. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Must remember not to holiday there. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Must remember not to holiday there. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Must remember not to holiday there. (Score:1)
Re:Must remember not to holiday there. (Score:2)
If 40 miles across only has one Starbucks near you, then you must be living in the middle of nowhere. When I was in school there were three Starbucks within 3 blocks of each other, and that doesn't count a few other shops that served Starbucks coffee.
Within a 20 mile radius of me (southwestern CT) Starbucks [starbucks.com] lists 59 retail stores.
Re:Must remember not to holiday there. (Score:2)
Re:Must remember not to holiday there. (Score:1)
*no, i'm not making it up, zip 77379
So when they nix the next Pluto mission... (Score:4, Funny)
what about bob? (Score:4, Funny)
bob. yeah, not as catchy if the entire planet were called "bob" but still!
bob the moon.
Re:what about bob? (Score:2)
I kinda like it...
Titan A.E. (Score:1)
Cale: So now you're the boss. You're the King of Bob.
Akima: Can't we just call it "Earth"?
Cale: No one said you have to live on Bob.
Akima: I'm never calling it that.
Re:Titan A.E. (Score:2)
Re:Titan A.E. (Score:1)
It was one of my favorite lines... a little bit of sesarching on the internet, and they gave the quote.
Pluto? Hydra? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Pluto? Hydra? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pluto? Hydra? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Pluto? Hydra? (Score:1)
I wonder if it's "Dark Matter" that they orbit
Super cool barycenter [wikipedia.org] animations and explanations.
Re:Pluto? Hydra? (Score:5, Informative)
First off, Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld (the Greek was Hades).
Secondly, from wikipedia:
Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid.
Re:Pluto? Hydra? (Score:1)
Nyx was used for an asteroid... (Score:2)
Re:Nyx was used for an asteroid... (Score:1)
Re:Pluto? Hydra? (Score:3, Informative)
Fight! (Score:1)
What a coincedence (Score:2)
Must. Resist. Setup. (Score:4, Funny)
(rimshot)
Thank you!
Re:Must. Resist. Setup. (Score:2)
Your water serpent has many heads? (Score:2)
--Dr. Alphonse Mephisto
Re:Your water serpent has many heads? (Score:2)
Re:Must. Resist. Setup. (Score:2)
Re:Must. Resist. Setup. (Score:3, Funny)
Don't tell me: Your pants fit you like a glove.
That would be more like... (Score:2)
They expecting mucho agua? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:They expecting mucho agua? (Score:2, Informative)
'udwr* -> 'udra -- pronounce -> hudra -> hydra
Re:They expecting mucho agua? (Score:2)
Re:They expecting mucho agua? (Score:1)
Only two heads, what a loser (or looser depending on your spelling tendencies).
Re:They expecting mucho agua? (Score:2)
Celestia (Score:2)
w00t! (1.4.1) (Score:1)
Shocking! Celestia finally pushed past version 1.3.2, where it had languished for years. Will wonders never cease? Can't wait to get home and download this puppy...
Unix (Score:5, Funny)
I'd be delighted... (Score:2)
"Hey, um, Pluto seems to be getting a bit, well, thicker recently?"
Hydra? (Score:1)
Oh, you mean hydra. (Score:5, Funny)
Pluto could use a hydrant.
Re:Oh, you mean hydra. (Score:1)
New Horizons (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:New Horizons (Score:5, Informative)
Probably not, the new moons don't have very much mass anyway, and Pluto's planethood is questioned as much by its eccentric orbit and its resemblence to Kuiper belt objects as by its mass.
Re:New Horizons (Score:1)
Re:New Horizons (Score:1)
Re:New Horizons (Score:1)
Well yes, the same side of the moon faces the earth- but the same side of the Earth doesn't face the same side of the moon at all times like Charon and Pluto do. That's all I was trying to say.
Re:New Horizons (Score:1)
Re:New Horizons (Score:1)
When the Chinese Moon Missions sends a rocket (Score:5, Funny)
Li nix - a good thing.
Re:When the Chinese Moon Missions sends a rocket (Score:1, Funny)
The moon (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The moon (Score:1)
Tell it to the kids (Score:1)
I think technically it isn't a planet. But life's boring if you live it to the letter. Let's call it a planet for the sake of breaking the rules.
... and the kids.
Re:Tell it to the kids (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Tell it to the kids (Score:1)
Re:The moon (Score:2)
Re:The moon (Score:1)
Nobody is mentioning it because it isn't true. Pluto is a (major) planet for the time being, at least until September, when the IAU will be deciding on a criterion, or set of criteria, for determining whether a body in orbit about a star (specifically, a fusor) is a planet.
Re:The moon (Score:5, Informative)
We call it 'the' moon because it is 'our moon', just like we call Sol 'our Sun' and Terra 'the Earth'.
It's easier that way.
Re:The moon (Score:2, Interesting)
I think, according to the IAU, the Moon is simply called "Moon," just as our planet is just called "Earth." The generic term for a body that orbits a larger non-fusor (that is, a non-star) is "satellite," ultimately (through French) from Latin satelles, meaning "attendant."
Re:The moon (Score:1)
The sun is similarly named "Sun".
and Earth is named "Earth".
Terra, Luna, and Sol, are all of them names used only by people speaking other languages or reading Science Fiction. In English, the names "Sun", "Moon", and "Earth" are official.
"The Moon", or Luna (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The moon (Score:5, Informative)
Just to be clear:
"Terra" is generic "ground" in Latin. During the height of this word's popular usage, no distinction was made between the ground and the surface of the planet itself, just as we sometimes refer to soil as "earth".
"Luna" is generic "moon" in Latin. During the height of this word's popular usage, no distinction was made between the moon orbiting our planet and a moon orbiting any other body in space, since only our one moon was conclusively known to exist.
Other variants for "Earth" are "Tellur" (ancient Latin form of modern Latin derivitive "Terra") and "Gaia" (Greek). Another variant for "The Moon" is "Selene" (Greek).
The significance of English vs. Latin names:
English is very prevalent in modern technical/scientific disciplines due to its articulative flexibility through use of the root/prefix/suffix language construction derived from its Romantic/Latin heritage. Since Latin proper has mostly been replaced in the western world by Romantic language variants and dialects, English has become the language of much normative information in scientific circles. The reason is simple: articulative ability in a commonspeak language.
However, as in medicine, Latin is used as a disambiguation language. That is, one which contrasts sharply with commonspeak so as to instantly confer information without the ambiguities introduced by commonspeak language, such as homonyms or figures of speech. Hence, in scientific documentation, such as astronomical data, Latin designations are used to disambiguate the meaning of things, like planet names and moons, while providing a clear base for universally translating the correct meaning to other languages as needed for native language comprehension.
Interesting sidenotes:
Read more at Wikipedia:
Re:The moon (Score:1)
Um... can someone translate this for me?
Re:The moon (Score:1)
Ohhhh, what does that mean? well, look at the word reblended. re-blend-ed meaning re - again, blend - well, ya know, mix, blend, whatever, and ed - happened in the past.
A lot of languages don't let you do that, such as German, which would make it more like
Re:The moon (Score:2)
Ohhhh, what does that mean? well, look at the word reblended. re-blend-ed meaning re - again, blend - well, ya know, mix, blend, whatever, and ed - happened in the past.
A lot of languages don't let you do that, such as German
German is a perfectly cromulant language in this aspect actually. Take for example words like "wiedergutmachung" (re-good-making; making up for something/reparations), "hauptbanhof" (main train station), or even "Büromaschinenmechaniker" (office machinery mechanic).
In fact, German
Re:The moon (Score:2)
If you go by strict
Re:The moon (Score:1)
is a harsh mistress
Re:Why Not Cerberus? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not sure whether or not that has any bearing on the naming of planets and moons, but at least Hydra's better than Quaoar. [wikipedia.org]
Subcribe to SlashDot - really? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Moon's? (Score:1)
Two? (Score:2)
More trivia: How many planets in our solar system have only a single moon? (answer: one)
How many have NO moons? (two or three, mecury, venus, and maybe xena)
Ratboy
Re:Two? (Score:2)
Regards,
Jorge Boosh"
Um... ours?
Re:Two? (Score:1)
This should be fun... (Score:2, Funny)
But... (Score:1)
Re:But... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:But... (Score:1)
Re:But... (Score:1)
Re:But... (Score:2)
The timing of it (Score:2)
A Linux machine with software like THC Hydra, what was I supposed to think?
So, I've been forced to rename my laptop to Pluto.
see, you messed up because (Score:1)
*oblig ref to most
More to come... (Score:5, Informative)
These moons, and those newly discovered ones around Saturn obviously did not just come into existence in recent history, we merely detected them finally, and gave them names. To extrapolate, there will be many more that we haven't detected yet, most likely around the last three: Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, simply because detailed analysis by dedicated spacecraft hasn't been done yet. I think the Voyagers did a fairly thorough job, though, so whatever is left should be quite small, but may merit the classification of "moon" none-the-less (not sure what the criteria is...Saturn has billions of "moonlets" in its rings).
This sort of begs the question, how many names are we gonna have to come up with. Surely Classical mythology has a finite supply...
Re:More to come... (Score:1)
There's no shortage of other mythologies, though. Haven't you read Rendezvous with Rama?
Re:More to come... (Score:2)
Re:More to come... (Score:2)
Moon? Satellite? (Score:1)
Re:Moon? Satellite? (Score:1)
Just like discoveries of Suns in other Solar systems.