Help name the moons of Pluto

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Candlelight, Feb 12, 2013.

  1. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Just the latin names then?
     
  2. iguana_tonante

    iguana_tonante Admiral Admiral

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

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    Voted for Persephone and Cerberus.
     
  4. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I speak French, so I'm already calling them "la Terre" and "la Lune". Adding an "a" at the end doesn't quite have the same ring for me. In fact, it sounds a bit ridiculous.
     
  5. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    I voted for Cerberus and Persephone.

    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 it discounts most, if not all, planets. Certainly all gas giants.
     
  6. Emher

    Emher Admiral Admiral

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    Went with Lethe and Obol, since for some reason saying "Pluto, Lethe and Obol" out loud just sounded right.
     
  7. iguana_tonante

    iguana_tonante Admiral Admiral

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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. ;)
     
  8. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    Mass Effect is one of the few sci-fi settings (or at least one of the few recent ones) I can think of that avoids this trope. Humans are from Earth, obviously, and then there are the asari from Thessia, the turians from Palaven, and the salarians from Sur'Kesh, among others. Alien names are also treated as common nouns and not capitalized, as is the case with the word 'human.' Maybe it's not as unique as I'm thinking, but I found it kind of refreshing.
     
  9. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Ah now that's completely different. I don't want to speak latin, but forcing everyone to speak italian sounds perfect.
     
  10. Deranged Nasat

    Deranged Nasat Vice Admiral Admiral

    Humus Prime. I always go with Humus Prime. ;)
     
  11. rhubarbodendron

    rhubarbodendron Vice Admiral Admiral

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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 :D
     
  12. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

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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.
     
  13. iguana_tonante

    iguana_tonante Admiral Admiral

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

    rhubarbodendron Vice Admiral Admiral

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    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.
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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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.


    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.
     
  16. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I went with Persephone and Styx.
     
  17. iguana_tonante

    iguana_tonante Admiral Admiral

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


    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.
     
  18. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    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.
     
  19. iguana_tonante

    iguana_tonante Admiral Admiral

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    That's what they wanted you to think. ;)
     
  20. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    As Spock would say... fascinating. :)