“Vulcan” and “Cerberus” win the poll to name Pluto’s two unnamed moons.
“Vulcan” and “Cerberus” win the poll to name Pluto’s two unnamed moons. Key quote:
Vulcan was a late addition to the Pluto moon name contenders, and pulled into the lead after Shatner, building on his Capt. James T. Kirk persona, plugged the name on Twitter. Vulcan, the home planet of Kirk’s alien-human hybrid first officer Spock, is not just a fictional world in the Star Trek universe. It is also the name of the god of fire in Roman mythology, and officials at SETI added the sci-fi favorite to the ballot for that reason.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
“Vulcan” and “Cerberus” win the poll to name Pluto’s two unnamed moons. Key quote:
Vulcan was a late addition to the Pluto moon name contenders, and pulled into the lead after Shatner, building on his Capt. James T. Kirk persona, plugged the name on Twitter. Vulcan, the home planet of Kirk’s alien-human hybrid first officer Spock, is not just a fictional world in the Star Trek universe. It is also the name of the god of fire in Roman mythology, and officials at SETI added the sci-fi favorite to the ballot for that reason.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Bad choice, I gotta feel. Cerebrus I can live with == it was a dog, not a hugely important character in classical myths IIRC. Vulan, however, was one of the major Roman gods — the lame blacksmith god, creator of volcanos, patron saint of alchemists, husband to Venus, etc. He deserves to name a major planet — and what will we do now if we find a habitable world at 40 Eridani A?
Just what we always do call it New Vulcan.
I totally agree with Mike on this one.
My two proposals didn’t get close to enough vote though.
Hypnos and Thanatos, twin brothers and sons of Nix. Nix is already a moon of Pluto.
I was hoping they would save the name Vulcan for the first positively habitable planet discovered outside out solar system. Just like the Vulcans in Star Trek were the first known to Earth.
Since the reigning theme of Pluto’s system is the Underworld, is Vulcan closely associated enough to qualify? Sure, one of his departments is volcanoes, but it seems like a stretch. The IAU still has to approve the final choice of names (the on-line poll isn’t binding and obviously subject to special-interest ballot-box stuffing), and I suspect Vulcan won’t make the cut. Too important a god for a tiny moon, wrong end of the solar system, not associated with Pluto/Hades et al.
Myself, I’d like to see Cerberus and Styx. Part of the reason is that in 1941, science-fiction writer Edmond Hamilton wrote a pulp series called CAPTAIN FUTURE in which he depicted Pluto as having three moons: Charon, Cerberus, and Styx. This was quite a leap of the imagination because Pluto wasn’t known to have any moons at all until 1978, and then the first Plutonian moon to be discovered was named Charon (reportedly because it resembled the name of the discoverer’s wife as well as being mythologically correct). It isn’t a complete coincidence because Hamilton realized that any Plutonian moons would likely be named after mythological characters associated with Hades, but it’s interesting to see how right he was after all. It’d be really great to see Hamilton go three for three with his long-ago prediction of names for Plutonian moons he didn’t know even existed!
Mr. Decker: I wish I had money or a framed certificate to hand out, because you win the prize for the wonderfully erudite comment on a website that I’ve seen in several years. I’m typing this with my mouth wide open in shock. Speaking as an old Edmond Hamilton fan, thank you!
Why bother naming moons of Pluto anymore? If it isn’t a planet, what’s the point?