'Uranus' is the same as 'Europa' (and many more terms): "breadth" - the former used for the vast cover which is the sky, the second for the land extension.
There's nothing funny about it unless one really hunts for coincidences in sounds through unduly overlappings.
What has «first language» do with it? If you read 'Al' in 'Alcohol' as "Alfred", you are reading it wrong: "Al" is a definite article there, irregardless of coincidences.
It's a good point about the first language, not so important.
The rest I dont' get, the fact Uranus actually sounds like "Your Anus" is just a thing, it can't be helped.
When I hear the word Alcohol, I do sometimes think of the nickname for Allan or Alistair which is often Al; However, it's not just as funny as thinking about a planet being called "Your Anus, Uranus".
Ignoring that it's usually pronounced Uran-us rather than Ur-anus, really? I spend a lot of time around physicists and astrophysicists and I think you can probably guess how much of an issue this is (or for any adults)
Because it's hard to notice, but "Uranus" sounds like "your anus". It's funny to point this out, each and every time "Uranus" comes up in any context whatsoever.
For Greek speakers it just means “sky” so no big deal. The namer of the planet was German (Johann Bode) so he wouldn’t have known its unfortunate double meaning in English. Every time you say it it’s like a punchline.
Why did they name it Europa anyway? Seems like it will cause all sorts of confusion amidst hilarious typos. "Scientists speculate about Europe's ability to support intelligent life." Perhaps we should rename it "Vulcan" or "Krypton" or some recognizably alien name to reduce the chances for misunderstanding.
Unfortunately, due to its name, Uranus has been the butt of many jokes.
Sorry -- had to share that. Got it from the wonderful "Great Courses" intro to astronomy series (See? I managed to throw in some good hacker stuff and tell a corny joke at the same time.) Highly recommended.
> The IAU made a decision about this, not for scientific reasons but for naming conventions (they have a different naming convention for planets and non-planets).
“The name is intended to reflect the characteristics of the body itself, and be an appropriate moniker derived from mythology. Objects, including dwarf planets, far beyond the orbit of Neptune are expected to be given the name of a deity or figure related to creation”
Pluto is a Greek god related to the underworld, not to creation, so it doesn’t fit that pattern, does it?
Also, it’s not “non-planets”, it’s “dwarf planets”. Pluto still is considered a planet in the terminology of the IAU, but not a ‘planet planet’ (my term, not an IAU one)
I think GP is suggesting it be renamed to Urbutthole or something like that to make it specifically distinguished as camp and pun so as to filter out anyone who would set their scientific priorities based on the name of the celestial body.
I’m not one to scream about kids these days but it seems really weird that someone would suggest renaming a planet to avoid elementary school puns. And the puns probably help with Uranus science.
Of course, some DNA sequences were recently renamed to avoid Excel errors so maybe we’re entering the era of trying to make subjective changes because it’s hard to understand or hard to change objective things.
I mean, what else is there to say about pictures of Uranus? ‘Nice planet’?
I don’t usually make jokes on HN articles, but this one I did because what else are you gonna post. The rest of the unflagged comments are posting facts about Uranus you can read on Wikipedia.
'Uranus' is the same as 'Europa' (and many more terms): "breadth" - the former used for the vast cover which is the sky, the second for the land extension.
There's nothing funny about it unless one really hunts for coincidences in sounds through unduly overlappings.
What has «first language» do with it? If you read 'Al' in 'Alcohol' as "Alfred", you are reading it wrong: "Al" is a definite article there, irregardless of coincidences.
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