Help name the moons of Pluto

[Rhubarbodendron]

iguana_tonante wrote:

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And I speak Italian, which means I call them "la Terra" and "la Luna". I just like the idea of everybody calling them the same.

Interesting that in both your languages both nouns are female. In German, Earth is female but the moon is male =)
And while in Italian (and in French, too, I believe) the sun is male, our German one is female

[The Mirrorball Man]

Rhubarbodendron wrote:

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Interesting that in both your languages both nouns are female. In German, Earth is female but the moon is male =)
And while in Italian (and in French, too, I believe) the sun is male, our German one is female

I think there are symbolic reasons why one would associate the moon with the female gender, but maybe it's just my linguistic bias showing.

[iguana_tonante]

The Mirrorball Man wrote:

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I think there are symbolic reasons why one would associate the moon with the female gender, but maybe it's just my linguistic bias showing.

Yeah, I've thought about it as well, and I think there must be some kind of climate-related reason at work here.

[Rhubarbodendron]

I think this calls for an extra thread as we need a lot of feedback from members from other countries so that we can compare.

[Christopher]

The Mirrorball Man wrote:

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Just the latin names then?

iguana_tonante wrote:

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I don't see why not. Just like the other planets.

Not really. See the article I linked above. "Terra" is just the Latin word for earth, as in "terra firma;" it's not the name of a deity like the other planet names. As I said, Tellus would be the correct name if you wanted Earth to be named per the same Roman-deity convention as the other planets.

RJDiogenes wrote:

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That's fine, as long as the definition is consistent. The reason the current definition of planet is so stupid is that it was chosen not for scientific reasons, but for a political one-- to limit the number of planets in the solar system. But what difference does it make how many there are?

I think the best solution is to keep the dwarf planet category, because it's useful, but to eliminate the paradoxical notion that a dwarf planet is not a planet. A dwarf star is still a star, a dwarf galaxy is still a galaxy, and so on, so that just doesn't make sense. And we have other subdivisions of "planet" as a category, such as giant planets and terrestrial planets. We just need to treat "planet" as a class that has numerous subdivisions.

[CorporalCaptain]

I went with Persephone and Styx.

[iguana_tonante]

Christopher wrote:

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Not really. See the article I linked above. "Terra" is just the Latin word for earth, as in "terra firma;" it's not the name of a deity like the other planet names. As I said, Tellus would be the correct name if you wanted Earth to be named per the same Roman-deity convention as the other planets.

Cool. I didn't know Tellus preceded Terra for the name of the deity. I thought they were used as synonymous.

RJDiogenes wrote:

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That's fine, as long as the definition is consistent. The reason the current definition of planet is so stupid is that it was chosen not for scientific reasons, but for a political one-- to limit the number of planets in the solar system. But what difference does it make how many there are?

The very reason for having a definition of "planet" is political: what to put on science books for primary schools. Scientists don't need a definition or a list: students do.

[Christopher]

iguana_tonante wrote:

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The very reason for having a definition of "planet" is political: what to put on science books for primary schools. Scientists don't need a definition or a list: students do.

Well, that's not entirely true. The idea behind the 2006 IAU conference was to finally come up with a real scientific definition for the term "planet," one that would be based on meaningful physical parameters rather than historical convention and that would be useful as a classification for scientists. I don't think they succeeded very well at meeting those goals, because the decision-making process was rushed and ultimately the result of compromise rather than scientific consensus, but it's incorrect to say that they weren't even trying to come up with a scientific definition, because that was the entire purpose of the exercise.

[iguana_tonante]

That's what they wanted you to think.

[Gaith]

Christopher wrote:

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Well, by science fiction convention, our planet should be named Humania. Or maybe Huma. Either that or Sol III.

A name that's sometimes used for Earth in science fiction is Tellus, the name of the Roman earth goddess, and thus a good fit with the other planet names.

As Spock would say... fascinating.

[B.J.]

Does anyone have a diagram of Pluto and all five moons, showing their orbits? The only one I've been able to find only has P4, not P5.

EDIT: Nevermind. There was one right on Wikipedia.

I was thinking that their order might be important to some for the name considerations: Pluto - Charon - P5 - Nix - P4 - Hydra

[Rhubarbodendron]

Christopher wrote:

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[...] "Terra" is just the Latin word for earth, as in "terra firma;" it's not the name of a deity like the other planet names. As I said, Tellus would be the correct name if you wanted Earth to be named per the same Roman-deity convention as the other planets.

Not all planetary names are Latin. Uranus and Pluto are Greek. Earth is in fact not only called terra but also Gaia in both astrological and astronomical context.
There you have your name
With a slight vocal shift (from ai to e) it is also part of the words apogeum and perigeum (biggest and closest distance of an object to earth), geology (literally earth science), geography (lit: earth writing/drawing) and geocentric view (the belief that the universe revolts around Earth).

[Christopher]

^The distances are normally called apogee and perigee. I've been a space buff all my life and I've never heard the "-geum" forms. Apparently they're archaic versions.

[smiki]

^In my language they're called apogej (pronounced: apogey) and perigej (pronounced: perigey). It's probably similar in German too.

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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Humus Prime. I always go with Humus Prime.

That's specieist! This planet belongs to other lifeforms too!

Anyway,I voted for Cerberus and Erebus.

I also filled in the "write-in form" option and put: Minne and Mickey.

[Davros]

Nerys Myk wrote:

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What? No Mickey, Goofy or Donald?

And here I wanted Yuggoth as an option.