Well, the Task Group for Mars Nomenclature at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has just reinforced the glass dome on the Red Planet by naming another crater in honor of a male science fiction writer. Crater Greg, about 68 km in diameter and located east of Hellas Planitia basin, is named for 19th-century science fiction author Percy Greg (1836-1889), who wrote the influential Mars novel Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record (1880).We now have eight Martian craters named in honor of male SF writers: Burroughs Crater (1973), Weinbaum Crater (1973), Wells Crater (1973), Lasswitz Crater (1976), Alexey Tolstoy Crater (1982), Heinlein Crater (1994), Asimov Crater (2009) and Greg Crater (2010).
And zero craters named in honor of female SF writers! Leigh Brackett (1915-1978), the Queen of Space Opera and of Martian Science Fiction, got screwed, again!
[via SF Scope via SF Site]
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2 comments:
"Leigh Brackett (1915-1978), the Queen of Space Opera and of Martian Science Fiction, got screwed, again!"
I, too, think this is a shame. I am told that there is already a Brackett crater on the Moon (named for spectroscopist Frederick S. Brackett), and that this rules out naming a Brackett crater on Mars.
For details about the new crater names, see my account:
http://beamjockey.livejournal.com/153553.html
Bill, thanks for the link to your LJ entry. I can understand how some scientists might confuse the moon with Mars.
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