[meteorite-list] Ten Craters on Mercury Receive New Names

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:08:35 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201003162308.o2GN8ZBk015339_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=143

MESSENGER Mission News
March 16, 2010

Ten Craters on Mercury Receive New Names

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved a proposal
from the MESSENGER Science Team to confer names on 10 impact craters on
Mercury. The newly named craters were imaged during the mission's three
flybys of Mercury in January and October 2008 and September 2009.

The IAU has been the arbiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature
since its inception in 1919. In keeping with the established naming
theme for craters on Mercury, all of the craters are named after famous
deceased artists, musicians, or authors.

"All of the newly named features figure importantly in ongoing analysis
of Mercury's geological history," says MESSENGER Principal Investigator
Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "The MESSENGER
Science Team is pleased that the IAU has responded promptly to our
latest request for new names, so that the identities of these craters in
the scientific literature can be clearly conveyed."

The newly named craters include:

    * Bek, named for the chief royal sculptor (active c. 1340 B.C.)
      during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten, a Pharaoh of the 18th
      dynasty of Egypt. *Bek* is credited with the development of the
      "Amarna Style," the distinctive and often peculiar combination of
      the exceptionally mannered and the naturalistic.


    * Copland, for Aaron Copland (1900-1990), an American composer of
      concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. He was
      instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition
      and is widely known as the dean of American composers.


    * Debussy, for Claude Debussy (1862-1918), among the most
      important of French composers and one of the most prominent
      figures working within the field of impressionist music. He was a
      central figure in European music at the turn of the 20th Century.


    * Dominici, for Maria de Dominici (1645-1703), a Maltese sculptor
      and painter said to have made portable cult figures used for
      street processions on religious feast days.


    * Firdousi, for Haki-m Abu'l-Qa-sim Firdaws- Tu-si- (935-1020), a
      revered Persian poet and author of the Sha-hna-meh, the national
      epic of Persian people and of the Iranian world.


    * Geddes, for Wilhelmina Geddes (1887-1955), an Irish
      stained-glass artist and member of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
      Her work represented a rejection of the Late Victorian approach,
      and she created a new view of men in stained glass windows,
      portraying them with close-shaven crew cuts.


    * Hokusai, for Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), a Japanese artist
      and printmaker of the Edo period. He was Japan's leading expert on
      Chinese painting and is best-known as author of the woodblock
      print series, /Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji/, which includes the
      iconic and internationally recognized print, /The Great Wave off
      Kanagawa/, created during the 1820s.


    * Kipling, for Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), a British author and
      poet regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story.
      He is best known for his works of fiction, poems, and many short
      stories, including those in The Jungle Book (1894).


    * Picasso, for Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), a Spanish painter,
      draughtsman, and sculptor best known for co-founding the Cubist
      movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work.


    * Steichen, for Edward Steichen (1879-1973), an American
      photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was
      the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz's
      groundbreaking magazine /Camera Work/ during its run from 1903 to
      1917.


These 10 newly named craters join 42 other craters named since
MESSENGER's first Mercury flyby in January 2008.

More information about the names of features on Mercury and the other
objects in the Solar System can be found at the U.S. Geological Survey's
Planetary Nomenclature Web site:
http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/index.html.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teachers Sought as NASA MESSENGER Educator Fellows

Teachers from across the U.S. are invited to apply to become Educator
Fellows for NASA's MESSENGER mission to Mercury. The 30 master teachers
chosen for the program will receive special training to help them
conduct teacher training workshops featuring lessons for grades pre-K
to12 developed in support of the mission.

"Our Educator Fellowship Program greatly expands the reach of the
MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach Team," says MESSENGER Principal
Investigator Sean Solomon. "Many of our Fellows have participated in
major mission events, such as the Mercury flybys, and all have become
enthusiastic and well-informed ambassadors for our mission and for the
nation's space program more generally."

The MESSENGER Educator Fellowship Program, managed by the National
Center for Earth and Space Science Education, is designed to provide
teachers and school districts with exceptional educational materials and
professional development strongly tied to the space science curriculum,
as well as to inspire the next generation of America's scientists and
engineers through NASA missions. Since the program's inception in 2003,
more than 14,000 educators across the nation have been trained by the
Fellows.

The Fellows selected for the program will receive a five-day training
workshop in Washington, D.C., business cards that identify them as a
MESSENGER Educator Fellow, copies of lessons, a how-to manual on
conducting effective teacher training workshops, online resources to
promote the workshops, and other NASA resources. In return, Fellows
commit to conducting teacher training workshops that reach a minimum of
100 teachers per year for two years.

Practicing teachers and teacher trainers in both formal and informal
education settings are encouraged to apply.

The deadline for applications is April 10, 2010. Additional information
is available online at http://messenger-education.org/teachers/ao.php.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and
Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet
Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest
to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and
after flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury will start a yearlong study of
its target planet in March 2011. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, leads the mission as Principal Investigator.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates
the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.
Received on Tue 16 Mar 2010 07:08:35 PM PDT