Welcome to the neighborhood
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 by Amber
Let's give a great, big, Andy's Room welcome to Makemake!
Named for the Polynesian god of humanity and fertility, Makemake (pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh) joins Eris, Pluto and Ceres as the 4 dwarf planets in our solar system. Apparently it went unnamed for so long because its chemical makeup didn't lend itself well to Earthly mythology, from which all the names for our heavenly bodies are taken. But, its moniker, while very strange, has caught on well and is making the rounds it recent news feeds.
You see, after Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet (something I don't understand all the fuss about -- did anyone really care that much about Pluto? I mean, aside from a funny Uranus joke every once in a while, those outer planets are a second thought, really), other celestial bodies were upgraded to dwarf planets. Out of those, Ceres is the only one not then further upgraded to a plutoid, which just means that it's orbit isn't big enough.
So, where do all these planets fall in the line-up? It goes... Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris and Makemake. Wow, that's a mouthful. I feel bad for all those elementary school kids that have to learn that mnemonic device.
Named for the Polynesian god of humanity and fertility, Makemake (pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh) joins Eris, Pluto and Ceres as the 4 dwarf planets in our solar system. Apparently it went unnamed for so long because its chemical makeup didn't lend itself well to Earthly mythology, from which all the names for our heavenly bodies are taken. But, its moniker, while very strange, has caught on well and is making the rounds it recent news feeds.
You see, after Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet (something I don't understand all the fuss about -- did anyone really care that much about Pluto? I mean, aside from a funny Uranus joke every once in a while, those outer planets are a second thought, really), other celestial bodies were upgraded to dwarf planets. Out of those, Ceres is the only one not then further upgraded to a plutoid, which just means that it's orbit isn't big enough.
So, where do all these planets fall in the line-up? It goes... Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris and Makemake. Wow, that's a mouthful. I feel bad for all those elementary school kids that have to learn that mnemonic device.
Labels: dwarf planets, Makemake, planets, plutoid, solar system
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Amber Plante is your guide through the geektastic worlds of science, technology and pop culture -- the Q to your James Bond, the Cortana to your Master Chief and the McGonagall to your Harry Potter, so to speak. She makes the technobabble make sense and shows you the fantastic wired world of the Internet in a whole new light. Are you a geek, too? Don't worry, you're in good company.