Posted on 11/12/2019 12:50:31 PM PST by 11th_VA
Ultima Thule, the farthest cosmic body ever visited by a spacecraft, has been officially renamed Arrokoth, or "sky" in the Native American Powhatan and Algonquian languages, following a significant backlash over the old name's Nazi connotations.
The icy rock, which orbits in the dark and frigid Kuiper Belt about a billion miles beyond Pluto, was visited by the NASA spaceship New Horizons in January this year, with the first detailed images showing it consisted of two spheres stuck together in the shape of a snowman.
Its technical designation is 2014 MU69 but the New Horizon team initially nicknamed it Ultima Thule (pronounced Tool-ey) after a mythical northern land in classical and medieval European literature described as beyond the borders of the known world.
That name sparked a backlash, however, because it was co-opted by far-right German occultists in the early 20th century as the fabled ancient northern country of the "Aryan" people (the term they used to describe proto-Indo-Europeans).
Their Thule Society later became Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, and the term remains popular in alt-right circles: it is, for example, also the name of a Swedish white-power rock group.
The new official name, which was chosen by the New Horizons team and ratified by the International Astronomical Union, was announced in a ceremony at NASA headquarters Tuesday. A subsequent NASA statement made no mention of the controversy.
(Excerpt) Read more at afp.com ...
They could rename it Bruce Lee Highway, that would be OK.
And yet if it had been named Wakanda they would’ve celebrated NASA’s progressive diversity.
Ridiculous Thule is a pretty cool name, and had an independent existence over a thousand years before the Nazis used it.
“BTW, ‘Lee Highway’ in VA is doomed ...”
Without a doubt.
This world is headed to such a dark place. People are willingly going down the path of complete censorship, and conformity.
The Dark Ages are going to look like an enlightened party next to what’s coming.
So, Thule, Greenland is a hotbed of Nazis? Who knew?
That's brilliant.
Similarly, they should change the name of Yale (which is odious even aside from its slave-owner connection) to the name of their most famous (and possibly only admirable) alum. It would only require a little bit of paint:
Hale
So, Thule, Greenland is full of Nazis?......................
We have now entered the era of outrage, victimhood, oppression, and denial of diversity of thought.
I would have gone with “Arrakis” and told people it was named in honor of the Spice Girls.
GMTA!!!!.....................
NAZI’s were never far right.
they keep trying to make conservative fit that narrative in all they do...
LOL!....................
You read about advanced ancient civilizations that disappeared without a trace.
“How did it happen”, everyone asks.
I think we now know the answer.
They got woke, then civilization broke.
THE ICE MUST FLOW!....................
Brought to us by those who cannot be criticized.
Naming them gets you banned, even here.
A pity.
OMG! Was Marguerite a Nazi?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=288u-gTn7kk
(”The King of Thule” by Gounod, sung by Maria Callas)
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