Yesterday I found a listing in the USGS announcements of new planetary names: Punga Mare named on Titan.
Hmm, I thought: this sounds suspiciously Māori. Surely not. But indeed, named for the son of Tangaroa.

And that got me to thinking, what else is there in the Solar System named for Māori mythology? I knew of the asteroids Aotearoa and Aoraki, ( Read more... )