Mahabharata's Character Revati Makes it to Pluto's Moon Charon, Know How and Why!
All the names selected for the different landmarks denote travelers, explorers, scientists, pioneering journeys and mysterious destinations. They are honouring tales around the world.
Indians keep relating to the epic of Mahabharata for several things, for imparting values or other symbolic things to daily lives. The epic of a story had so many characters, each teaching us some value or about human existence. Now one of the characters has made it to planet Pluto! Well, if you are confused then let us clear it for you. Pluto's largest moon Charon has received names for its official features. Charon's landmarks have been given names honoring several explorations. One of the craters on Charon has been named as Revati, a colourful character from the epic.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the international body which in charge of giving official nomenclature and definitions for all celestial bodies. Revati was noteworthy in the epic as she belonged to a different yuga in the epic war story. Taking this angle, her name has fascinated the scientists and researchers. The official document of IAU says: “Revati Crater is named for the main character in the Hindu epic narrative Mahabharata — widely regarded as the first in history (circa 400 BC) to include the concept of time travel.”
Take a look at all the other names of the Charon's features:
All the names selected for the different landmarks denote travelers, explorers, scientists, pioneering journeys and mysterious destinations. They are honouring tales around the world. People around the world had name suggestions for the features in the ‘Our Pluto’ campaign that was going on. NASA's New Horizons team helped in selecting the names which are approved by the IAU. Revati may not be that popular as a character in the epic but a symbolism of time travel has made it a name of a feature in the universe wide wide away!
The other names on the list given to different features of Charon are Argo Chasma, Butler, Clarke Montes, Kubrick Mons, Nemo Crater, Pirx Crater, Sadko Crater. All of these names have their mythological stories, some novels or even folktales.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 18, 2018 11:58 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).