{"id":19616,"date":"2015-08-25T20:33:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T12:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/pluto-we-have-a-problem-some-geographical-names-may-not-fly-on-official-maps\/"},"modified":"2015-08-25T20:33:12","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T12:33:12","slug":"pluto-we-have-a-problem-some-geographical-names-may-not-fly-on-official-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/pluto-we-have-a-problem-some-geographical-names-may-not-fly-on-official-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"Pluto, we have a problem: Some geographical names may not fly on official maps"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pluto\"
The heart-shaped area that\u2019s prominent in this New Horizons picture of Pluto is known as Tombaugh Regio. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the best-known names on Pluto \u2014 ranging from the Sputnik plains to the Hillary and Norgay mountains and the dark Cthulhu Regio \u2014 may never appear on the International Astronomical Union\u2019s maps, due to a tiff over terminology.<\/p>\n

Those are just a few of the informal names that have raised questions from members of the IAU panel charged with approving the nomenclature for the dwarf planet\u2019s geographical features. The names were selected by the team behind NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission to Pluto after a months-long online naming campaign at OurPluto.org.<\/p>\n

\"pluto\"
\nScience journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong> is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.”<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, we would have preferred that the New Horizons team had approached us before putting all these informal names everywhere,\u201d said Rosaly Lopes, a senior research scientist at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who is a member of the IAU\u2019s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s chair, Rita Schulz of the European Space Agency, said the New Horizons team has not yet submitted a formal proposal for naming features on Pluto and its moons.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, there are always some features for which this process goes rather fast, some for which more checks and balances are required (which then takes a bit longer) and there are usually also some names or descriptors that cannot be approved and need to be replaced by others,\u201d she told GeekWire in an email.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the net, Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute, who headed up the OurPluto.org campaign and is a member of the New Horizons team, said he was looking for additional guidance from the IAU.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t gotten any official response yet,\u201d Showalter told GeekWire. He said the informal labels were \u201cgreat names, and we\u2019ll do whatever we can to encourage them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pluto
A close-up of Pluto\u2019s surface shows a dark area called Cthulhu Regio at left, mountains that have been nicknamed Hillary Montes at center, and a flat region unofficially known as Sputnik Planum at right. Members of an IAU panel have raised questions about those names. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One sure winner is Tombaugh Regio, the bright heart-shaped region that dominates the best pictures taken by the New Horizons probe during its July 14 flyby. The name pays tribute to Clyde Tombaugh, the Illinois-born astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930. Schulz said her working group \u201ccould approve this name right away, as we have pre-discussed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other names will face tougher sledding. Months ago, the IAU said it would not consider the OurPluto.org suggestions that were inspired by historic spacecraft or space missions; or by explorers of the Earth, air and seas; or by authors, artists, directors and producers of exploration fiction. Such names should be excluded because \u201cthese themes have already been used on Mercury, Venus and Mars,\u201d the IAU said.<\/p>\n

That could rule out Viking Terra, Columbia Colles, Challenger Colles and Soyuz Colles, Sputnik Planum, Hillary Montes and Norgay Montes (touted as the first extraterrestrial feature bearing the name of a Nepali). Clarke Mons and Kubrick Mons might have to be crossed off the maps of Charon, Pluto\u2019s biggest moon.<\/p>\n

\"Pluto
This annotated map shows the initial, informal names being used by the New Horizons team for features and regions on Pluto\u2019s surface. For a larger version, visit OurPluto.org (Credit: OurPluto.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The categories that have been cleared for takeoff include mythological names for the underworld and its denizens (including dwarfs), as well as writers, scientists and engineers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. For Charon, fictional people, places and vessels associated with exploration and space would be OK. There are also pre-approved categories for Pluto\u2019s smaller moons: river gods for Styx, deities of the night for Nix, famous dog names for Kerberos, and legendary serpents and dragons for Hydra.<\/p>\n

Within those categories, the IAU might still pick and choose: For example, some of the working group\u2019s members have raised questions about Cthulhu Regio, the New Horizons team\u2019s nickname for a dark whale-shaped region along Pluto\u2019s equator. That\u2019s because the fictional monster known as Cthulhu was created by H.P. Lovecraft, who espoused racist and anti-Semitic views in some of his other writings.<\/p>\n

Showalter acknowledged that he had heard about the pushback over Cthulhu, but pointed out that the IAU already approved naming a crater on Mercury after Lovecraft. He also argued that the character has transcended its creator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a literary icon from the world of horror fiction, and it\u2019s moved beyond Lovecraft himself,\u201d Showalter said. \u201cFictional creations are not the same thing as the horrible things that may have been done by the people who created them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charon
This map shows the informal names used by the New Horizons team for features on Charon, Pluto\u2019s largest moon. Check OurPluto.org for larger versions of the map. (Credit: OurPluto.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spock, Kirk and Vader Crater also could be controversial, even though those science-fiction icons fit nicely within the IAU\u2019s categories for features on Charon. During a series of interviews over the past month, Schulz voiced concern that some names may not be enduring enough to merit recognition. \u201cWe must be sure that a few generations after us, no one asks, \u2018How could they name it for somebody no one knows?’\u201d the Berliner Morgenpost quoted her as saying last week.<\/p>\n

The IAU also wants to make sure the names on Pluto and its moons reflect a wide variety of the planet\u2019s cultures, and not just Hollywood icons.<\/p>\n

Does it matter what the IAU thinks? New Horizons\u2019 principal investigator, Alan Stern, doesn\u2019t think so. He has lambasted the organization for the way it treated Pluto, and got under the IAU\u2019s skin by setting up informal naming systems for extrasolar planets and Martian craters. By some accounts, those dust-ups have added to the friction over New Horizons\u2019 nicknames.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unprecedented to see nicknames take more of the spotlight than the IAU\u2019s approved names. For example, the mountain being explored by the Curiosity rover on Mars is known more widely as Mount Sharp (NASA\u2019s unofficial name) than as Aeolis Mons (the IAU\u2019s official name). And the features on Curiosity\u2019s route, such as Yellowknife Bay and Marias Pass, are routinely nicknamed without consulting the IAU. So who knows? Maybe someday we\u2019ll be skating over Pluto\u2019s Sputnik Plain after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The heart-shaped area that\u2019s prominent in this New Horizons picture of Pluto is known as Tombaugh Regio. (Credit: NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI) Some of the best-known names on Pluto \u2014 ranging from the Sputnik plains to the Hillary and Norgay mountains and the dark Cthulhu Regio \u2014 may never appear on the International Astronomical Union\u2019s maps, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4663,190,2174,2848,4004],"class_list":["post-19616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-iau","tag-nasa","tag-new-horizons","tag-pluto","tag-pluto-flyby"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19616"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19616\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}