# Pluto's newest moon - Vulcan! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 26, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984 "2013-03-26T03:02:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/1 "2013-03-26T03:02:08Z")
Trekker power is an awesome thing: [http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/02/25/pluto-moon-vulcan-shatner/1947565/](http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/02/25/pluto-moon-vulcan-shatner/1947565/) ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/2 "2013-03-26T03:07:39Z")
It would have been more logical to call it Rupert… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/3 "2013-03-26T03:13:42Z")
My vote would have been for Mickey. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/4 "2013-03-26T03:43:29Z")
[Vulcan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(mythology)) isn’t necessarily a Star Trek reference. I don’t doubt that the scientists naming it appreciate the double meaning, but this is in line with the classical mythological names given to other objects in the solar system. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/5 "2013-03-26T04:23:09Z")
Fascinating! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/6 "2013-03-26T04:53:48Z")
What a strange and inappropriate choice of name. Vulcan was the god of fire and volcanoes. Why name a body so cold and remote after him? Vulcan was the name once given to a hypothetical planet inside Mercury’s orbit. (It’s been proved not to exist) That was an appropriate name, if it had been real. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/7 "2013-03-26T06:08:23Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > What a strange and inappropriate choice of name. Vulcan was the god of fire and volcanoes. Why name a body so cold and remote after him? > > Vulcan was the name once given to a hypothetical planet inside Mercury’s orbit. (It’s been proved not to exist) That was an appropriate name, if it had been real. Proserpina would have been appropriate. She was Pluto’s wife. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/8 "2013-03-26T07:33:59Z")
Yes. Live long and Prosperina. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/9 "2013-03-26T15:39:49Z")
Yeah, what happened to giving planetary satellites names appropriate to the myths surrounding the planet’s name? (Already broken, of course, with Uranus’s Shakespearean/Popish-named moons, but still…) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/10 "2013-03-26T15:45:56Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > [Vulcan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(mythology)) isn’t necessarily a Star Trek reference. [True.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan,_Alberta) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/11 "2013-03-26T15:47:53Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > What a strange and inappropriate choice of name. Vulcan was the god of fire and volcanoes. Why name a body so cold and remote after him?.. As the article noted, Vulcan was Pluto’s nephew. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/12 "2013-03-26T15:55:14Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > As the article noted, Vulcan was Pluto’s nephew. Yeah, but the Roman/Greek gods were a big old Hillbilly Holler with the inbreeding and such. With that kind of reasoning you could pretty much just stick any of the Olympians’ names on any moon in the system… ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/13 "2013-03-26T16:05:24Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Proserpina would have been appropriate. She was Pluto’s wife. Or Cerberus! ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/14 "2013-03-26T16:13:23Z")
Nice early birthday present for Leonard Nimoy! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/15 "2013-03-26T18:31:32Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Or Cerberus! Now that’s just silly. Who’d name a moon after an aardvark? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/16 "2013-03-26T23:41:45Z")
Nothing’s been named “Goofy” yet. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/17 "2013-03-27T01:25:46Z")
Dang; ninja’d by **panache45**. Okay, then instead, I’ll say “Why Rupert, **MacTech**?” ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/18 "2013-03-27T22:02:33Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Yes. Live long and Prosperina. 🙂 Nice. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/19 "2013-03-28T13:42:03Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > What a strange and inappropriate choice of name. Vulcan was the god of fire and volcanoes. Why name a body so cold and remote after him? > > Vulcan was the name once given to a hypothetical planet inside Mercury’s orbit. (It’s been proved not to exist) That was an appropriate name, if it had been real. They should have named it Palin. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984/20 "2013-03-28T13:43:56Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Dang; ninja’d by **panache45**. > > Okay, then instead, I’ll say “Why Rupert, **MacTech**?” I had to google it. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert\_(planet)#Rupert](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_(planet)#Rupert) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plutos-newest-moon-vulcan/653984.md?page=2)