18 July 2015

Stargazing Cat ~

I love this photo of the stargazing cat! Siri, a feline admirer of the Carinia Nebula, is perhaps looking for signs of life.... or maybe she just spotted a bug. (:
Photo courtesy of Emily Joseph.

5 comments:

  1. That's a gorgeous photo! However I think Siri is miffed at all the media attention about a dwarf planet called Pluto...a cartoon dog's name, for heaven's sake...and so here she is looking for an asteroid to name Felix. :) Even Garfield would do, ha!

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  2. Hi Elizabeth! I'll have to ask my planetary scientist friends if there are any heavenly bodies with cat names! And hey- in my heart - Pluto IS and will always be a planet! Go, Pluto!

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  3. Elizabeth: all of the planets are named after Roman gods. Pluto is named for the god of the underworld, it has nothing to do with the cartoon dog. That's why it's moons are named Charon (the ferryman on the river Styx), Styx (a goddess, and also the river running through the inderworld), Hydra (a multi headed monster), and Kerberos (giant dog that guards the underworld, in the Greek name version because the Roman was already taken by an asteroid), and Nix (goddess mother of Charon, again in a translated version).
    Off the top of my head, the Cat's Eye Nebula would be the only object that remotely relates to cats.

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  4. Thank you, Anonymous! Very informative post!

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