Obviously someone is a fan of Mike Oldfield.

Hey, c'mon, it's just someone else's language, it's not "silly", even though it _does_ translate to "Easter Bunny" ...and, I _could_ see how someone might mistake it for a fish.

Oh, and does anyone else here think "The Plutoids" would be a really good name for a band? Perhaps, second-billed at the Echo & The Bunnymen reunion gig?

Alright alright alright already...

For anyone who might be interested 'Makemake' is pronounced MAH-kay MAH-kay. Its orbit is also much more tilted to the elliptical plane of the planets than pluto.

"I have the distinct memory of feeling this fertile abundance pouring out of the entire universe."

Astronomers will be on about crystal balls and ley lines providing the energy to heat the stars next.

Paris, because she knows about how to avoid unwanted fertility

...I think PhrozenPhart would've been better

... "mining ship red", allowing us to have "mining ship red dwarf" enter a perfectly serious conversation between astrophysicists?

OK, not a very good joke and yes, a red dwarf is a classification of star, but come on, it's like NASA calling a shuttle 'Enterprise'...

I have no idea what the relevance of the song to this article is. But it was Wings, not Mike Oldfield.

Mine's the "Dumpy's Rusty Nuts" tour jacket...

Presumably all this fecundity is what has given rise to the phrase "On the Makemake"...

Mine's the one with the paperback Dictionary of Phrase & Fable in the pocket, thanks.

"Make Make" was the first track on Mike Oldfield's "Heaven's Open" album.

Not as silly as calling a planet Venus and far less silly than calling one Uranus but... come to think of it what's with all these astronomers?

"OK, not a very good joke and yes, a red dwarf is a classification of star, but come on, it's like NASA calling a shuttle 'Enterprise'.."

Ah but the name of Enterprise as a ships (or in this case shuttles) name is quite normal. The Royal Navy has had several ships called Enterprise over the centuries. Although I agree that I don't think NASA were thinking of that when they named her.

"To......boldy go.......where no......Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel....has gone before !!!" ;)

"Makemake's surface is covered with large amounts of almost pure methane ice, which is scientifically fascinating, but really not easily relatable to terrestrial mythology.

"Suddenly, it dawned on me: The island of Rapa Nui. Why hadn't I thought of this before? "

Is anyone going to explain this nonsense to the rest of us? I'm not massively up on my geography but I doubt Rapa Nui is coated with methane ice.

bloody astronomers, Head in the clouds..

oh and @Echowitch - Blame the US public as they voted to call a Shuttle 'Enterprise' wasn't chosen by NASA that one.

Well, a quick Google search (no really, you should try it sometime) reveals that "Rapa Nui" is also known as "Easter Island". And if you'll recall from the article, Makemake was formerly called "Easterbunny". I'll leave it up to you to put the two together.

GIYF...

I have been to Rapa Nui. Mostly covered in grass and Eucalyptus trees. Thus, I gather, The colonial name for Rapa Nui is Easter Island and the connection, from the temporary name to the island to the gods of that island, is but a bunny hop of imagination. It' not, er, rocket science.

that he's a geek.

It's obvious, innit? He was supposed to be stargazing, but instead he was working on the open source code for the GNU programming environment on his laptop.

He spotted something appearing on his scope just after typing "make make"....

Rapu Nui == Easter Island.

The plutoid was discovered on easter sunday, 283 years (precisely) after the day the Europeans first landed on Rapu Nui.

Well, I suppose you have to start somewhere, and computer geekspeek has percolated through every aspect of our language today.

Next one on the list: Makegrep.

So the 3 plutoids should be ./configure, make, and make install.....

by calling it Rapu Nui he's just being a bit pretentious and inaccurate? I mean you'd not make the jump from Easterbunny to Rapu Nui, you'd make the jump from Easterbunny to Easter Island to Makemake.

Still, great discovery. Not sure about the name, but given the other naming conventions that are out there it's probably not one of the worst!

eh .. red dwarf is NOT a classification of a type of star. it is a hilarous britisch comedy show.

red giant and Blue dwarf are classifications of a star ... there is no such thing as a red dwarf star ...

As per Stevie, but will a typo lead to it being called:

"make: *** No rule to make target `makw'. Stop."

[apologies]

Steven R

It should at least be palatable - how about Mahimahi? Tasty, yet at the same time particularly spacey in appearance . . .

"Ah but the name of Enterprise as a ships (or in this case shuttles) name is quite normal. The Royal Navy has had several ships called Enterprise over the centuries. Although I agree that I don't think NASA were thinking of that when they named her."

Oh, but that shuttle was named after _the_ Enterprise alright. There was a campaign back then to ensure that was done. Too bad it was only a prototype, so it never got into space.

I wonder what the Rapa Nui -- the current inhabitants of the island and presumed cultural heirs of the mythology of the Makemake birdman cult -- think about this name being appropriated by Americans to label a plutoid.

> red giant and Blue dwarf are classifications of a star ... there is no such thing as a red dwarf star ...

Sorry but there is, a red dwarf is not only a type of star, but the most common type - one nearing the end of it's life, about 1/2 a solar mass. Our nearest neighbour, Proxima Centuri is a Red Dwarf.

MUST be called "rupert". prepare to adjust horoscopes on my mark.

he had more then a whalesong and a joss stick