back to article Third plutoid christened 'Makemake'

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has declared that the trans-Neptunian dwarf planet formerly dubbed 2005 FY9, or "Easterbunny", will henceforth be known as the equally silly "Makemake". Makemake, discovered in 2005 by a team from the California Institute of Technology led by Mike Brown, is the fourth officially- …

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  1. xyz Silver badge
    Joke

    Methane Ice?....

    ...I think PhrozenPhart would've been better

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    "Band on the run / band on the run"

    Obviously someone is a fan of Mike Oldfield.

  3. Lex
    Boffin

    Makemake

    For anyone who might be interested 'Makemake' is pronounced MAH-kay MAH-kay. Its orbit is also much more tilted to the elliptical plane of the planets than pluto.

  4. Mike Flugennock
    Coat

    Makemake, silly?

    Hey, c'mon, it's just someone else's language, it's not "silly", even though it _does_ translate to "Easter Bunny" ...and, I _could_ see how someone might mistake it for a fish.

    Oh, and does anyone else here think "The Plutoids" would be a really good name for a band? Perhaps, second-billed at the Echo & The Bunnymen reunion gig?

    Alright alright alright already...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    New Age New Age

    "I have the distinct memory of feeling this fertile abundance pouring out of the entire universe."

    Astronomers will be on about crystal balls and ley lines providing the energy to heat the stars next.

    Paris, because she knows about how to avoid unwanted fertility

  6. Gulfie
    Joke

    Can we call the next one...

    ... "mining ship red", allowing us to have "mining ship red dwarf" enter a perfectly serious conversation between astrophysicists?

    OK, not a very good joke and yes, a red dwarf is a classification of star, but come on, it's like NASA calling a shuttle 'Enterprise'...

  7. Andy
    Happy

    re "band on the run"

    I have no idea what the relevance of the song to this article is. But it was Wings, not Mike Oldfield.

    Mine's the "Dumpy's Rusty Nuts" tour jacket...

  8. Big Al
    Coat

    Fertile ground for bad puns...

    Presumably all this fecundity is what has given rise to the phrase "On the Makemake"...

    Mine's the one with the paperback Dictionary of Phrase & Fable in the pocket, thanks.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Andy

    "Make Make" was the first track on Mike Oldfield's "Heaven's Open" album.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yes it's silly.

    Not as silly as calling a planet Venus and far less silly than calling one Uranus but... come to think of it what's with all these astronomers?

  11. Echowitch
    Flame

    SMMMEEEEGGGGG

    "OK, not a very good joke and yes, a red dwarf is a classification of star, but come on, it's like NASA calling a shuttle 'Enterprise'.."

    Ah but the name of Enterprise as a ships (or in this case shuttles) name is quite normal. The Royal Navy has had several ships called Enterprise over the centuries. Although I agree that I don't think NASA were thinking of that when they named her.

    "To......boldy go.......where no......Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel....has gone before !!!" ;)

  12. Charlie
    Flame

    Title

    "Makemake's surface is covered with large amounts of almost pure methane ice, which is scientifically fascinating, but really not easily relatable to terrestrial mythology.

    "Suddenly, it dawned on me: The island of Rapa Nui. Why hadn't I thought of this before? "

    Is anyone going to explain this nonsense to the rest of us? I'm not massively up on my geography but I doubt Rapa Nui is coated with methane ice.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Talking rubbish

    bloody astronomers, Head in the clouds..

    oh and @Echowitch - Blame the US public as they voted to call a Shuttle 'Enterprise' wasn't chosen by NASA that one.

  14. Steven Hunter
    Alert

    @Charlie

    Well, a quick Google search (no really, you should try it sometime) reveals that "Rapa Nui" is also known as "Easter Island". And if you'll recall from the article, Makemake was formerly called "Easterbunny". I'll leave it up to you to put the two together.

    GIYF...

  15. Hollerith

    Rapa Nui

    I have been to Rapa Nui. Mostly covered in grass and Eucalyptus trees. Thus, I gather, The colonial name for Rapa Nui is Easter Island and the connection, from the temporary name to the island to the gods of that island, is but a bunny hop of imagination. It' not, er, rocket science.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    He's just covering up...

    that he's a geek.

    It's obvious, innit? He was supposed to be stargazing, but instead he was working on the open source code for the GNU programming environment on his laptop.

    He spotted something appearing on his scope just after typing "make make"....

  17. Owen

    @Charlie

    Rapu Nui == Easter Island.

    The plutoid was discovered on easter sunday, 283 years (precisely) after the day the Europeans first landed on Rapu Nui.

  18. Stevie

    Makemake

    Well, I suppose you have to start somewhere, and computer geekspeek has percolated through every aspect of our language today.

    Next one on the list: Makegrep.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Names

    So the 3 plutoids should be ./configure, make, and make install.....

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So

    by calling it Rapu Nui he's just being a bit pretentious and inaccurate? I mean you'd not make the jump from Easterbunny to Rapu Nui, you'd make the jump from Easterbunny to Easter Island to Makemake.

    Still, great discovery. Not sure about the name, but given the other naming conventions that are out there it's probably not one of the worst!

  21. vincent himpe

    @gulfie

    eh .. red dwarf is NOT a classification of a type of star. it is a hilarous britisch comedy show.

    red giant and Blue dwarf are classifications of a star ... there is no such thing as a red dwarf star ...

  22. Steven Raith
    Joke

    make make?

    As per Stevie, but will a typo lead to it being called:

    "make: *** No rule to make target `makw'. Stop."

    [apologies]

    Steven R

  23. bart

    Tasty Planet(oid)

    It should at least be palatable - how about Mahimahi? Tasty, yet at the same time particularly spacey in appearance . . .

  24. Daniel B.

    @Echowitch

    "Ah but the name of Enterprise as a ships (or in this case shuttles) name is quite normal. The Royal Navy has had several ships called Enterprise over the centuries. Although I agree that I don't think NASA were thinking of that when they named her."

    Oh, but that shuttle was named after _the_ Enterprise alright. There was a campaign back then to ensure that was done. Too bad it was only a prototype, so it never got into space.

  25. Lars
    Linux

    consent?

    I wonder what the Rapa Nui -- the current inhabitants of the island and presumed cultural heirs of the mythology of the Makemake birdman cult -- think about this name being appropriated by Americans to label a plutoid.

  26. Peter Mount
    Boffin

    @vincent himpe

    > red giant and Blue dwarf are classifications of a star ... there is no such thing as a red dwarf star ...

    Sorry but there is, a red dwarf is not only a type of star, but the most common type - one nearing the end of it's life, about 1/2 a solar mass. Our nearest neighbour, Proxima Centuri is a Red Dwarf.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    New planetoid in the solar system,..

    MUST be called "rupert". prepare to adjust horoscopes on my mark.

  28. Zmodem
    Gates Horns

    More then a song

    he had more then a whalesong and a joss stick

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