The Second Ring-Moon System of Uranus: Discovery and Dynamics

Science Mag ^ | 2/17

[cripplecreek]

We could put an end to the stupid jokes if we just changed the name of the planet. How does "Urectum" sound?

[Ichneumon]

We could put an end to the stupid jokes if we just changed the name of the planet. How does "Urectum" sound?

"Futurama" beat you to that joke by several years:

Fry: Did you build the Smellescope?

Farnsworth: No, I remembered that I'd built one last year. Go ahead. Try it. You'll find that every heavenly body has its own particular scent. Here, I'll point it at Jupiter.

[Fry sniffs.]

Fry: Smells like strawberries.

Farnsworth: Exactly! And now Saturn.

[Fry sniffs.]

Fry: Pine needles. Oh, man, this is great! Hey, as long as you don't make me smell Uranus.

[He laughs.]

Leela: I don't get it.

Farnsworth: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all.

Fry: Oh. What's it called now?

Farnsworth: Urectum.

[cripplecreek]

That's where I got it, but you must admit "Urectum" has a nice "ring" to it.

[showme_the_Glory]

but you must admit "Urectum" has a nice "ring" to it.....sounds like NASCAR terminology.

[PatrickHenry]

Uranus Ping List Don't ask to be added to or dropped from this list. Just don't.

[Adiemus]

"Deep exposures of Uranus taken with the Hubble Space Telescope" I stopped right there! LOL! :0)

The ultimate colonoscopy.

[arthurus]

Either there is a tenth planet or there are only eight.

[muir_redwoods]

In fact the planets name is pronounced "YOOR-in-us", but who am I to spoil a joke that was tiresome on the playground

[Bernard Marx]

Uranus/Urectum: it would still have a methane atmosphere.

[Billthedrill]

How does "Urectum" sound?

I don't think it would prevent people from repeating old, sophmoric jokes.

...such as "Rectum? Hell, it killed the sumbitch!"

[KevinDavis]

[SunkenCiv]

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!

Whew... that was a stealthy one...

[SunkenCiv]

you-RAY-nus is the correct pronounciation. Sagan was also wrong about Comet "Hal-lee" (in England, Edmund Halley pronounced it "Hall ee", as in kids in the), among other things.

[SunkenCiv]

The writer must have my kind of sense of humor. "Deep exposures of Uranus", geez, why doesn't he just be obvious about it, eh? ;')

[AndrewC]

[SunkenCiv]

"Well, scratch Uranus.

[muir_redwoods]

I'm very sorry but I've been an amateur astronomer for 25 years and "u RAY nus" is not the correct pronounciation. You are simply wrong but, as I said, who am I to spoil a childish joke for those who enjoy such things.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I think it's more like eight, nine or many planets. There are untold numbers of Kuiper Belt objects. Pluto is just a very close one, that was found early.

Although Pluto more nearly matches the pattern of KB object, one way to define planets is by roster: everything on a certain canonical list is a planet, everything else is something else, asteroid, comet, KB object, what have you.


BTW, I don't think calling Pluto a KB object means he can't be a planet as well, the sets are not necessarily disjoint.

I like to think of Pluto as the St. Christopher of planets. He was a planet when I was a boy reading "Our Sun and the Worlds Around It" and "Lives of the Saints". I'd like him to remain a planet in my days. I thought it was unkind of the Vatican to remove St. Christopher from the Canon merely because their is no historical evidence that he ever lived. Picky, picky.

[SunkenCiv]

All that means is that you've been wrong about it for 25 years. Goodbye.

[muir_redwoods]

Cut and run if you want to Braveheart, but the Oxford English Dictionary agrees with me.