NASA on Wednesday unveiled its first close-up photos of the planet Pluto, as taken by the New Horizons probe. Among the many cool things we learned today — including that Pluto's equator is studded with icy mountains, and that Pluto has one of the youngest surfaces in the Solar System — is that the members of the New Horizons team refer to a dark patch near the north pole of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, as Mordor, famously the home of Sauron and Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings.
That is not the formal name of the region, according to The New York Times, though it is one of many possible names — including Tatooine and the Shire — that are reportedly under consideration for Charon's landmarks. Unlike Samwise Gamgee, who said Mordor was the one place we didn't want to see any closer, we're hoping in the coming days to get a more detailed look at that sinister-looking spot.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Should you add your child to your credit card?The Explainer You can make them an authorized user on your account in order to help them build credit
-
Cracker Barrel crackup: How the culture wars are upending corporate brandingIn the Spotlight Is it 'woke' to leave nostalgia behind?
-
'It's hard to discern what it actually means'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditionsSpeed Read
-
Mega Millions jackpot climbs to an estimated $1.55 billionSpeed Read
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on recordSpeed Read
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homesSpeed Read
-
Scotland seeking 'monster hunters' to search for fabled Loch Ness creatureSpeed Read
