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All craters on Venus are named after Women.
I did not, as well as many other interesting facts, until I listened to this podcast.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07hp4q2
With such a good apparition ‘In our time’ its appropriate !
Clear skies,
Jack
Essex UK
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I didn’t know that either! There is a nice list of them on Wikipedia.
Yes, I did know it! Not at all sure that I approve however. Mind, given the hellish conditions there, the PC brigade are probably welcome to it…
Ray. It doesn’t seem that PC to me. It is more that it is trying to get a bit of balance. I believe that the vast majority of craters on the Moon are named after men.
Quite right Nick!
Regarding lunar craters, one cater name after a woman was in honour one of the first women to be admitted to the RAS, Mary Adela Blagg. It is particularly fitting as Mary was an accomplished selenographer who made a significant contribution to standardising the nomenclature of lunar features. She was also a BAA Member.
Nick,
I agree, its important to get the balance right.
Carolin Crawfords input to the program is excellent.
Clear skies,
Jack
Call it PC, call it a bourgeois fad, middle class fancy, softies’ choice, whatever. What kind of people decide these things? Nobody asked me for my own preference! Why is Mercury nomenclature limited to artists? Why not engineers? Heroes of the labour movement? Knights of the Round Table? Famous comics through history? 🙂 – Ray –
I can’t help but think of the following …
Arthur: I am your king!
Dennis’ Mother: Well I didn’t vote for you.
Arthur: You don’t vote for kings!
Dennis’ Mother: How’d you become king, then?
Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, [Angel chorus begins singing in background] her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [Angel chorus ends] That is why I am your king!
Dennis: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Arthur: Be quiet!
Dennis: You can’t expect to wield supreme power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
Arthur: Shut up!
Dennis: I mean, if I went ’round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!
Arthur: Shut up! Will you shut up?! [Grabs Dennis and shakes him]
Dennis: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!
Arthur: Shut up!
Dennis: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!The craters are named by an IAU committee. You could always try to get elected to it if you want to make your suggestions! Some of its decisions are controversial but most definitely not in this case.
You can call the craters anything you want in the same way that the International Star Registry (if they still exist) will name a star after your dead hamster for a small fee. Unless you are NASA nobody will take any notice.
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