In 1986, Voyager II traveled within 50,600 miles of Uranus, close enough to view some of the planet's rings and moons. This was the first and only time NASA visited Uranus.
In case you're unfamiliar, here are a few fun facts about the 7th planet from the sun:
Uranus is large, around four times wider than Earth.
Uranus is gassy, made up of hydrogen, helium, and a small amount of methane.
Uranus has many moons, 27 to be exact.
Uranus is lonely, with Voyager II being the only spacecraft to get up close and personal.
Uranus is lifeless.
We will soon know even more about Uranus as NASA is hoping to launch an exploration mission by early 2030s.
The hope of the mission is to get close enough to study the rings, moons, atmosphere, and magnetoshpere of Uranus.
There will likely be two pieces on the mission: an orbiting satellite and a probe to possibly penetrate the atmosphere of Uranus.
Neither has a name yet and, fortunately for the internet, that's where Ice Giant Mission (@ExploreIGO) stepped in:
\u201cThere was:\nVoyager - @NSFVoyager2 \ud83c\udf0c\nCassini-Huygens - @CassiniSaturn \ud83e\ude90\nNew Horizons - @NASANewHorizons \ud83d\udda4\nJuno - @NASAJuno \ud83d\udfe0\nPerseverance - @NASAPersevere \ud83d\udd34\n\nWe want to know, what would YOU name the #Uranus Orbiter & Probe Mission? \u26aa\ufe0f\ud83d\udef0\ufe0f\n#letsgoback #icegiants #namethemission\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
As you can imagine, responses came flooding in.
Some commenters responded with genuine scientific and origin-based names for the mission:
\u201c@ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants The most likely name would be Herschel,after its discoverer\nI would either propose "Shakespeare" , after the man who populsrized most of the names of its Moons or "George" after George III, for whom the planet\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@TheSenkari @ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants This is remarkably clever \ud83d\udc4f I\u2019m kinda kicking myself for forgetting this and not dropping it in with my last few characters instead of Persephone https://t.co/xUVzC9PNhE\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@stixalot @ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants I mean Icarus's flight didn't end well, but I very much like the mythical reference so how about dadalus instead?\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@ChitinCanOpener @ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants No reason a great man can\u2019t have two honours for two distinct discoveries\u2026 and no one outside Europe even knows about @esa Herschel!\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@ExploreIGO @AstroGingerSnap @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants Based on the Shakespearean official names of the Uranian moons, I think that \u201cTempest\u201d would be an excellent choice.\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
And some chose to make the pronunciation of Uranus the butt of the joke, er, name.
(It should be noted that many scientists pronounce the ice giant's name as YOOR-un-us.)
\u201c@ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants How about the Planetary Orbital Observation Probe?\nAKA the P.O.O.P\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants Clearly The Uranus probe should be named \u201cPepper\u201d, after the Butthole Surfers\u2019 1996 hit\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@AtTostao @ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants The data would just gush from the project. I good omen for the clean data we would receive i'm sure.\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants Enema, based on the Greek demigod of underground rivers and exploration.\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants This seems like the perfect time for @ASTROGLIDE to sponsor space exploration.\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants All these sound adequate for Uranus:\n\nWHERE - World-Hitchhiking Explorer of Remote Environments\nRIM - Remote Interplanetary Mission\nDILATE - Distant Interplanetary Large Analyzer Tester and Explorer\nFIST - Forward Interplanetary State Tracker\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
\u201c@ExploreIGO @NSFVoyager2 @CassiniSaturn @NASANewHorizons @NASAJuno @NASAPersevere @IcyGiants Um I think a probe of Uranus can only be called Colonoscopy.\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662835912
Fortunately for us, Ice Giant Missions created two lists of the best responses to their original tweet.
The first list is "seriously cool name suggestions" and the second is what @ExploreIGO considered to be the best jokes.
\u201cThe #icegiants community is insanely creative \ud83d\ude0d & hilarious \ud83d\ude02\nHere are the two lists:\n1. Seriously cool name suggestions for the #Uranus mission \u26aa\ufe0f\ud83d\udef0\ufe0f (so difficult to choose!)\n2. Some of the best jokes people came up with \ud83c\udf51\nWhich is your favorite from each list?\n#letsgoback\u201d— Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0 (@Ice Giant Missions \ud83d\udef0) 1662959622
There appear to be plenty of names, both serious and not-so-serious, from which to choose. Stay tuned!
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram