It’d be the ultimate geek joke!
NASA’s Hubble Discovers New Rings and Moons Around Uranus
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope photographed a new pair of rings around Uranus and two new, small moons orbiting the planet.
The largest ring is twice the diameter of the planet’s previously known rings. The rings are so far from the planet, they are being called Uranus’ “second ring system.” One of the new moons shares its orbit with one of the rings. Analysis of the Hubble data also reveals the orbits of Uranus’ family of inner moons have changed significantly over the past decade.
“The detection of these new interacting rings and moons will help us better understand how planetary systems are formed and sustained, which is of key importance to NASA’s scientific exploration goals,” said Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, program scientist for Hubble at NASA Headquarters.
Or one of the rings, at the very least. It’d just be too cool, IMHO, if they did that.
Have you started the petition yet? And what’s the joke?
Example:
Why does the ENTERPRISE stock so much toilet paper?
Ahhh. Thanks, Mr. Blue Sky . (I think.)
I just found out something interesting.
With the mention of petitioning to rename the moons of this particular planet, I decided to check on alternate names for the deity it was named for.
Apparently, the Roman version of Ouranos/Uranus was “Caelus.”
Which is, oddly enough, pretty close to “Kahless.”
If that’s not some kind of omen, I don’t know what is.
Moons keep popping up all over.
Diceman
December 24, 2005, 4:47pm
7
Does one of those small moons have a large crater in the northern hemisphere, and a trench along the equator? If so, then maybe we should all start making our peace with this life.
Not Uranus, but Saturn’s moon Tethys or maybe Iapetus .
Q.E.D
December 24, 2005, 5:34pm
9
Mimas is an even better candidate.
