The farthest cosmic body humanity has ever approached should be a celebrated and joyous occasion. But alas, NASA has found a way to bum it up.
What was once known as "Ultima Thule" - the furthest object ever approached by a human spacecraft - has been renamed Arrokoth (meaning 'sky' in Native American Powhatan) - after the original name had a bitter aftertaste of Nazi.
Arrokoth, an icy rock that resembles a snowman, sits about a billion miles beyond pluto yet is still not far enough to escape the internet-fueled rage of 2019.
You see, 'Ultima Thule' has been 'borrowed' by very far-right German fanatics since the very early 20th century as the fanciful ancestral home of the 'Aryan' people, who Hitler was a bit of a fan of.
After all, the Thule Society founded Hitler's Nazi party, with several far-right-wing supporters utilising the name such as Swedish white-power musical group of the same name.
During the NASA ceremony to officially change the name to Arrokoth, there was no mention of the controversy.
Alan Stern, the NASA New Horizons principal investigator said: "The name 'Arrokoth' reflects the inspiration of looking to the skies and wondering about the stars and world's beyond our own,"
Sure it does, also Ultima Thule is really bad PR.
At the end of the day, NASA has done the right thing deflating the issue and restoring wonder back into the snowman floating in the deep unknown.
Do you love ARSE and want to help spread us far and wide as we thrust into the deep unknown?
Grab your supporter gear here!
#Space_Aus
