[imagesource: MarcelC / iStock / Getty Images Plus]

It is true that NASA is sending a probe to explore Uranus, but it is not true that the agency asked the internet to come up with a name for the mission.

They are smart enough to know that all manners of playground jokes about butts and poop will be released.

Come on everyone, this is legitimate science stuff here and there is actual work to do to better understand what’s happening on the surface of Uranus, as well as deep inside.

Fine. It is far too easy, isn’t it? Especially considering the planet actually smells like farts and rotten eggs, per CNET.

Anyway, an unofficial Twitter account promoting future missions to our Solar System’s ice giants, Ice Giant Missions, which is not affiliated with NASA, requested suggestions for what to name the possible probe for Uranus:

You’re asking… the public… to come up with a name…. for a probe… going to Uranus… https://t.co/ERxDs01yTq

— Classical Studies Memes for Hellenistic Teens (@CSMFHT) September 11, 2022

The uncharted territory became dangerous as soon as netizens went beyond the expected “Something McSomethingface” jokes:

The #icegiants community is insanely creative 😍 & hilarious 😂
Here are the two lists:
1. Seriously cool name suggestions for the #Uranus mission ⚪️🛰️ (so difficult to choose!)
2. Some of the best jokes people came up with 🍑
Which is your favorite from each list?#letsgoback pic.twitter.com/MupJ2WMqBz

— Ice Giant Missions 🛰 (@ExploreIGO) September 12, 2022

At least it’s not a thinking, feeling thing that is the butt of all these jokes.

Although, there were those compassionate enough to acknowledge how the poor Uranus probe is begging to be taken seriously and suggested more befitting names for the Uranus explorer.

IFL Science reckons Odin is a good one, after the Norse god that led Asgard to defeat the Frost Giants, and Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind and bringer of winter.

MUSE (Mission Uranus Science Expedition) isn’t awful, and nor is Our Anus, a reminder that science can bring humanity together despite our differences:

Big
Useful
Telescope
Toting
Probe
Looking at
Uranus’
Gases

— Dave Briggs 🔬💎 (@xtaldave) September 11, 2022

Most planets in the Solar System – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter (even Jupiter’s many moons), and Saturn – have all been visited and surveyed by dedicated probes, except Uranus.

Until earlier this year, when a panel of experts from the US National Academies recommended a mission to the ice giant in its decadal report to NASA, notes Science Alert:

“Uranus is one of the most intriguing bodies in the Solar System,” the scientists wrote. “Its low internal energy, active atmospheric dynamics, and complex magnetic field all present major puzzles.

“A primordial giant impact may have produced the planet’s extreme axial tilt and possibly its rings and satellites, although this is uncertain. Uranus’s large ice-rock moons displayed surprising evidence of geological activity in limited Voyager 2 flyby data, and are potential ocean worlds.”

At the moment it seems the mission has been named the Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP), which is a little boring but also accurate and to the point.

NASA hopes to launch the UOP sometime in the early 2030s.

We’re all looking forward to seeing what Uranus contains.

[sources:cnet&sciencealert&iflscience]