Tenth Planet...What to Name It?
Hey.
I'd been wanting to blog about this subject since the news broke, but hadn't really given myself the chance. Anyway, it's been discovered, but not officially named. Anybody else speculating?
We're running out of Romanized Olympian deities, aren't we? Ceres, Vesta and Minerva (as Pallas) have all been honored with large asteroids. I thought Juno was also an asteroid, but don't have proof. Which leaves Hebe, Cupid, Bacchus, Pan and two more...
At first glance, Vulcan would probably be at the top of the list, because of the high prevalence of Trekkers in the science community. But if I were one of them, I'd wait on naming a planet Vulcan till we find a habitable planet IN ANOTHER STAR SYSTEM. Which leaves the name I'm leaning toward...
Prosperina. As the wife of Pluto, she's a natural. Besides, what would it do for the art of Astrology?
Speaking of which, the planet would also need a graphical symbol as the others do already. Anybody know if the gods themselves already had symbols assigned by the ancients?
BTW, another ponderable: since the days of the week originally honored sun, moon and the five naked-eye visible planets (Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Saturn), just think--if we have continued naming days after planets as we discovered them, we'd have twelve-day weeks by now! And only forty weeks in a year! Perhaps Pope Benedict will jump at the chance of immortality by establishing a new calendar...he has the authority to do that!
FP
PS: http://www.rednova.com/news/space/236584/odd_additions_to_our_solar_system/
There are actually three newly found planetoids in the Solar System. "Easterbunny" could be Pan or Cupid and "Santa" could be Bacchus.
I'd been wanting to blog about this subject since the news broke, but hadn't really given myself the chance. Anyway, it's been discovered, but not officially named. Anybody else speculating?
We're running out of Romanized Olympian deities, aren't we? Ceres, Vesta and Minerva (as Pallas) have all been honored with large asteroids. I thought Juno was also an asteroid, but don't have proof. Which leaves Hebe, Cupid, Bacchus, Pan and two more...
At first glance, Vulcan would probably be at the top of the list, because of the high prevalence of Trekkers in the science community. But if I were one of them, I'd wait on naming a planet Vulcan till we find a habitable planet IN ANOTHER STAR SYSTEM. Which leaves the name I'm leaning toward...
Prosperina. As the wife of Pluto, she's a natural. Besides, what would it do for the art of Astrology?
Speaking of which, the planet would also need a graphical symbol as the others do already. Anybody know if the gods themselves already had symbols assigned by the ancients?
BTW, another ponderable: since the days of the week originally honored sun, moon and the five naked-eye visible planets (Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Saturn), just think--if we have continued naming days after planets as we discovered them, we'd have twelve-day weeks by now! And only forty weeks in a year! Perhaps Pope Benedict will jump at the chance of immortality by establishing a new calendar...he has the authority to do that!
FP
PS: http://www.rednova.com/news/space/236584/odd_additions_to_our_solar_system/
There are actually three newly found planetoids in the Solar System. "Easterbunny" could be Pan or Cupid and "Santa" could be Bacchus.