Posted on 08/03/2015 1:46:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Four naming themes were selected for Charons features, three of which are based on fiction
Fictional Explorers and Travelers,
Fictional Origins and Destinations,
Fictional Vessels
and one on Exploration Authors, Artists and Directors.
Plutos features, in contrast, are named for both real people and places as well as mythological beings of underworld mythology. Clyde Tombaugh, the dwarf worlds discoverer, takes center stage, with his name appropriately spanning 990 miles (1,590 km) of frozen terrain nicknamed the heart of Pluto. Perhaps the most intriguing region of Pluto, its home to what appear to be glaciers of nitrogen ice still mobile at temperatures around 390°F (234°C).
...
* Space Missions and Spacecraft Sputnik, Voyager, Challenger
* Scientists and Engineers Tombaugh, Lowell, Burney (after Venetia Burney, the young girl who named Pluto)
* Historic Explorers Norgay, Cousteau, Bird
* Underworld Beings Cthulu, Balrog (from Lord of the Rings), Anubis (Egyptian god associated with the afterlife)
* Underworlds and Underworld Locales Tartarus (Greek pit of lost souls), Xibalba (Mayan underworld), Pandemonium (capital of hell in Paradise Lost)
* Travelers to the Underworld Virgil (tour guide in Dantes Divine Comedy), Sun Wukong (Monkey king of Chinese mythology), Inanna (ancient Sumerian goddess)
To keep them all straight, astronomers at the International Astronomical Unions Working Group on Planetary System Nomemclature are charged with choosing themes for each planet, asteroid or moon along with individual names for craters, canyons, mountains, volcanoes based on those themes. Astronomers help the group by providing suggested themes and names. In the case of the Pluto system, the public joined in to help the astronomers by participating in the Our Pluto Naming Campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
A close-up slice of Plutonian landscape centered on Tombaugh Regio with informal names waiting for approval. Click for a large pdf file. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Cthulhu Ping.
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They should just rename the whole thing Yuggoth.
Freegards
I’m guessing that the Cthulhu Region contains the Mountains of Madness.
I'm sure that will be news to the people who live there.
I think that’s for Sir Edmund, the explorer Hillary was retroactively named for.
Sulu went where no man should ever go.
Yes.
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