New Horizons team renames “Ultima Thule” to “Arrokoth”
The New Horizons team has renamed the Kuiper Belt object that the spacecraft flew past on January 1, 2019 from its informal nickname of “Ultima Thule” to “Arrokoth,” which means “sky” in Powhatan/Algonquian language.
This official, and very politically correct, name has apparently gotten the stamp of approval from the IAU.
In accordance with IAU naming conventions, the discovery team earned the privilege of selecting a permanent name for the celestial body. The team used this convention to associate the culture of the native peoples who lived in the region where the object was discovered; in this case, both the Hubble Space Telescope (at the Space Telescope Science Institute) and the New Horizons mission (at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory) are operated out of Maryland — a tie to the significance of the Chesapeake Bay region to the Powhatan people.
“We graciously accept this gift from the Powhatan people,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division. “Bestowing the name Arrokoth signifies the strength and endurance of the indigenous Algonquian people of the Chesapeake region. Their heritage continues to be a guiding light for all who search for meaning and understanding of the origins of the universe and the celestial connection of humanity.” [emphasis mine]
It is a good name, especially because its pronunciation is straight-forward, unlike the nickname.
The blather from Glaze above, however, is quite disingenuous. The Algonquian people have had literally nothing to do with the modern scientific quest for “meaning and understanding of the origins of the unverse.” They were a stone-age culture, with no written language. It was western civilization that has made their present lives far better. And it was the heritage of western civilization, not “the indigenous Algonquian people” that made the New Horizons’ journey possible. Without the demand for knowledge and truth, as demanded by western civilization, we would still not know that Arrokoth even existed.
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The New Horizons team has renamed the Kuiper Belt object that the spacecraft flew past on January 1, 2019 from its informal nickname of “Ultima Thule” to “Arrokoth,” which means “sky” in Powhatan/Algonquian language.
This official, and very politically correct, name has apparently gotten the stamp of approval from the IAU.
In accordance with IAU naming conventions, the discovery team earned the privilege of selecting a permanent name for the celestial body. The team used this convention to associate the culture of the native peoples who lived in the region where the object was discovered; in this case, both the Hubble Space Telescope (at the Space Telescope Science Institute) and the New Horizons mission (at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory) are operated out of Maryland — a tie to the significance of the Chesapeake Bay region to the Powhatan people.
“We graciously accept this gift from the Powhatan people,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division. “Bestowing the name Arrokoth signifies the strength and endurance of the indigenous Algonquian people of the Chesapeake region. Their heritage continues to be a guiding light for all who search for meaning and understanding of the origins of the universe and the celestial connection of humanity.” [emphasis mine]
It is a good name, especially because its pronunciation is straight-forward, unlike the nickname.
The blather from Glaze above, however, is quite disingenuous. The Algonquian people have had literally nothing to do with the modern scientific quest for “meaning and understanding of the origins of the unverse.” They were a stone-age culture, with no written language. It was western civilization that has made their present lives far better. And it was the heritage of western civilization, not “the indigenous Algonquian people” that made the New Horizons’ journey possible. Without the demand for knowledge and truth, as demanded by western civilization, we would still not know that Arrokoth even existed.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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It’s actually a heavy handed attempt to bury a name some whackjobs decided honored the Nazis
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/ultima-thule-nasa-nazi/589693/
Col Beausabre-
Good stuff.
[sounds like a H.P. Lovecraft character.]
“We graciously accept this gift from the Powhatan people,” said Lori Glaze,…”
Really?
This reminds me of—- whenever I watch something “official” from Canada or Australia, they always pause to honor “the indigenous stone-age people our ancestors persecuted and whose land we stole…”
This smacks 110% of exactly that, pointless exercise.
This entire, linked article is one big, hypocritical illusion of insane political correctness. Not a word about why “Ultima Thule” was dropped as name. They just go over it and present the new name or situation without any explanation. Those, who do or cause this action, should be damned.
Encounter with Ultima Thule
Dr. Jeff Moore New Horizons Geology & Geophysics Imaging team leader
Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture
November 5, 2019
https://youtu.be/i5P_6huIJm0
55:29
“Dr. Moore shares an insider’s view (with great images) of how the mission got there and what we learned at Ultima Thule.”
I agree that the Native American nomenclature is an exercise in pure virtue-signalling. Still, the name chosen also sounds as though it could have come from the language of another famous tribe of warlike tribal barbarians with a bit more “space cred”- the Klingons.
Star Trek Discovery
“T’kuvma’s Speech”
https://youtu.be/-XTce38ef98
1:34