Pluto Is Turning Into The Planet Of Your Nightmares

[jakeXT]

The New Horizons mission to Pluto has been a dream come true for scientists, who've waited years to get their first close-up glimpse of the distant dwarf planet. But some of the informal names they're giving its distinctive features are straight out of nightmares.
Since Pluto is named for the Roman god of the underworld, the names of its features are receiving monikers based on subterranean and suboceanic characters from fiction and mythology. 
One of the dark regions near Pluto's south pole, initially called "The Whale" when first spotted from a more distant photo, has now been dubbed Cthulhu, one of the terrible "Great Old Ones" from the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. Cthulhu lurks under the sea in the sunken city of R'lyeh. 
Other features have been named for Meng-p'o, the Buddhist goddess of forgetfulness and amnesia, and Balrog, a demon from JRR Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series. Two features, Vucub-Came and Hun-Came, are named for Mayan death gods. There's also Krun, named for a Mandaean lord of the underworld, and Ala, the Ibo ruler of the underworld.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/55a5dda9e4b0896514cfbc06?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. The geeks have had nine years to scrounge for cool names ...

... while waiting for that flying camera to get there.

I hope we gain some actual knowledge from all this, not just some bar bets on whose cool name gets applied to some feature of the planet.

Anyway, good to see some close-up photos of the place. And I hope it gets rehabilitated into a "real" planet again.

[jakeXT]

2. Listening to Tyson it sounds like he wants to demote even Earth

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017279206

[pinboy3niner]

3. Meh, Pluto is tame compared to the REAL Cthulhu

[benld74]

4. Actually the image of Pluto actually

has a shape on it that looks like the 'REAL' Pluto of Disney fame,,,,