As you know, we love hearing from you; and to stir up the conversation, we’re opening up a vote for your favorite images from our daily cover. If you get the chance today, go through our cover archives here and email me at: editorial -at- planetwaves.net to let me know your top three favorites.
We’re also recruiting writers for Planet Waves’ 2009 annual, Next World Stories. Scroll past today’s article for more details.
Dear Friend and Reader,
Today, the Sun is semisquare Mars, an aspect that illustrates forcefulness and the demonstration of strength. A few days ago, the second-brightest Kuiper belt object (Pluto is the first) pushed past six months of red tape and got a name. Goodbye, 2005 FY9; hello Makemake (pronounced MAH-kay MAH-kay).
Mike Brown and his team discovered Makemake in 2005, announcing its existence on July 29, 2005: the same day as Eris. Below is an excerpt from Mike’s blog, where he discusses the difficulty in naming this minor planet. His reference to Makemake as the “Easterbunny” comes from the time that the Kuiper belt object was first discovered, in March 2005:
The newly-named minor planet: Makemake.
We take naming objects in the solar system very carefully. We’ve picked out the names for Quaoar (creation force of the Tongva tribe who live in Los Angeles), Orcus (the earlier Etruscan counterpart to Pluto, for an object that appears much like a twin of Pluto), Sedna (the Inuit goddess of the sea, for the coldest most distant Kuiper belt object at the time), and Eris (the greek goddess of discord and strife, for the object that finally led to the demotion of Pluto). Each of these names came after considerable thought and debate, and each of them fit some characteristic of the body that made us feel that it was appropriate.Coming up with a new permanent name for Easterbunny was the hardest of all of these. Orcus and Sedna fit the character of the orbit of the body. Eris was so appropriate it is enough to make me almost start believing in astrology. Quaoar was, we felt, a nice tribute to the fact that all mythological deities are not Greek or Roman.
But what for Easterbuuny? It’s orbit is not particularly strange, but it is big. Probably about 2/3 the size of Pluto. And it is bright. It is the brightest object in the Kuiper belt other than Pluto itself. Unlike, say 2003 EL61, which has so many interesting characteristics that it was hard choosing from so many different appropriate name (more on this later), Easterbunny has no obvious hook. Its surface is covered with large amounts of almost pure methane ice, which is scientifically fascinating, but really not easily relatable to terrestrial mythology. (For a while I was working on coming up with a name related to the oracles at Delphi: some people interpret the reported trance-like state of the oracles to be related to natural gas [methane] seeping out of the earth there. After some thought I decided this theme was just dumb.) Strike one.
I spent some time considering Easter and equinox related myths, as a tribute to the time of discovery. I was quite excited to learn about the pagan Eostre (or Oestre or Oster or many other names) after whom Easter is named, until I later realized that this mythology is perhaps mythological, and, more importantly, that an asteroid had already been named after this goddess hundreds of years ago. Strike two.
Finally I considered Rabbit gods, of which there are many. Native American lore is full of hares, but they usually have names such as “Hare” or, better, “Big Rabbit”. I spent a while considering “Manabozho” an Algonquin rabbit trickster god, but I must admit, perhaps superficially, that the “Bozo” part at the end didn’t appeal to me. There are many other rabbit gods, but the names just didn’t speak to me. Strike three.
I gave up for about a year. It didn’t matter anyway, as the IAU was not yet in a position to act, and I was still waiting for them to decide on a proposal for 2003 EL61 which I had made 18 months ago (again, more later).
This Christmas, though, it was suggested to me that there were rumblings within the IAU that perhaps they would just chose a name themselves and not worry about what the discoverers thought. One could say that this should not matter and I should not care; there is no science there, after all, but, I enjoy, take seriously, and spend way too much time on this giving of names. I was not interested in a committee telling me the name of something I had discovered. So I went back to work.
Suddenly, it dawned on me: the island of Rapa Nui. Why hadn’t I thought of this before? I wasn’t familiar with the mythology of the island so I had to look it up, and I found Make-make, the chief god, the creator of humanity, and the god of fertility. I am partial to fertility gods for things I discovered around that time. Eris, Makemake, and 2003 EL61 were all discovered as my wife was 3-6 months pregnant with our daughter. Makemake was the last of these discoveries. I have the distinct memory of feeling this fertile abundance pouring out of the entire universe. Makemake was part of that.
Oh, and Rapa Nui? It was first visited by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722, precisely 283 years before the discovery of the Kuiper belt object now known as Makemake. Because of this first visit, the island is known in Spanish (it is a territory of Chile) as Isla de Pascua, but, around here, it is better known by its English name of Easter Island.
Yours & truly,
Is This the Future? Stories of the Next World
NEXT WORLD STORIES is the proposed title of the 2009 annual edition of Planet Waves, our eleventh. The annual edition is both our best work each year, as well as being the major fundraiser for the publishing company that puts out this digital magazine each week (Planet Waves, Inc.).
Instead of stories of a small world, we are inviting our readers and writers to contribute stories of the next world. These will be real-life experiences from our lives that exemplify the world we want to see, and offer them as prototypes for the future: events or experiences that just seem to have happened, or experiences from the world we are creating with our intentions and conscious creative choices. Reader contributed personal Stories of the Next World will be due by Oct. 31, but we invite you to send them in sooner.
We also invite our writers to explore prospects for the future based on the current movement of society. Those who have written for Planet Waves in the past, or who want to, are invited to send article proposals by August 15 (please be brief, 250 words or so) to Rachel Asher at editorial (at) planetwaves.net. Please take this note as a personal invitation. Artists and photographers with a futuristic vision are also invited to submit samples of their work for consideration. Next World Stories will also include annual horoscopes for all the signs, original art and photography, coverage of the 2008 election and a new compilation of minor planet delineations. Please stay tuned for more details.
Today’s Oracle takes us to May 02, 2005 – Leo – Monthly
There is something in your charts this month about the relationship between your work space and your living space. The two need to be perfectly compatible. I once visited the home of a literary agent who had designed her kitchen to flow seamlessly into her office which struck me instantly as a tribute to those of us who do a lot of our best work at the kitchen table. What impressed me was how well it was done and how in its place everything seemed. This is a good model for how your use of private time and working time inter-relate. A truly harmonious relationship is possible.
Tuesday 15 July 2008
Orcus (28+ Leo) sextile Hades (27+ Gemini) – Near Miss Only
Mercury (7+ Cancer) septile Orcus (28+ Leo)
Eros (0+ Leo) sesquiquadrate Juno (15+ Sagittarius Rx)
Mercury (7+ Cancer) semisquare Pallas (22+ Taurus)
Vesta (4+ Taurus) sesquiquadrate Logos (19+ Virgo)
Mars (8+ Virgo) trine Asbolus (8+ Taurus)
Sun (23+ Cancer) semisquare Mars (8+ Virgo)
Venus (3+ Leo) quintile Sedna (21+ Taurus)
Arachne (8+ Libra) sesquiquadrate Neptune (23+ Aquarius Rx)
Mercury (7+ Cancer) quintile Logos (19+ Virgo)
Eros (1+ Leo) sextile M87 (1+ Libra)
Mercury (8+ Cancer) sextile Asbolus (8+ Taurus)
Atlantis (17+ Libra) quintile Pluto (29+ Sagittarius Rx)
Sun (23+ Cancer) quincunx Neptune (23+ Aquarius Rx)
Pallas (22+ Taurus) sextile Uranus (22+ Pisces Rx)
Mercury (8+ Cancer) sextile Mars (8+ Virgo)
Mercury (8+ Cancer) sesquiquadrate Neptune (23+ Aquarius Rx)