The name Arrokoth was chosen by the New Horizons team to represent the Powhatan people indigenous to the Tidewater region of Virginia and Maryland in the eastern United States, and formally announced with the permission of the Powhatan nation’s Pamunkey Indian Tribe elders.
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The Alicanto is a mythological nocturnal bird of the desert of Atacama, from Chilean folklore. Its wings shine at night with beautiful, metallic colours, possibly indicating the type of ore it eats. A miner that follows an alicanto without being noticed by the bird can find rich mineral outcrops or entierros (buried treasure).
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Name origin: Slavic goddess of the wilderness, forests and the hunt. The name was chosen in 2018 to mark the discovery taking place during the Polish Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment of Warsaw University, which was led by co-discoverer Andrzej Udalski.
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From Wiki: “The names ǂKá̦gára and ǃHãunu are from the mythology of the ǀXam people of South Africa. ǂKá̦gára and his brother-in-law ǃHãunu fought an epic battle in the east using thunder and lightning, producing mountainous clouds and rain. The conflict was fought over ǂKá̦gára’s returning his younger sister, ǃHãunu’s wife, to their parents.”
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Name origin: Make Make is considered the supreme divinity of Easter Island and the most important mythological being in the Rapanui worldview. Make Make was the creator of all things, the first man and the first woman, and he had the power to reward the good people and punish the bad ones. The most important ritual in honour of Make Make was the bird man (Tangata Manu) competition in which prominent contestants sent helpers to obtain the first manutara (sooty tern) egg.
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Name origin: Greek goddess or personified spirit (daimona) of strife, discord, contention and rivalry. Eris was often portrayed specifically as the daimona of the strife of war, haunting the battlefield and delighting in human bloodshed. Because of Eris’ disagreeable nature she was the only goddess not to be invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. When she turned up anyway and was refused admittance, she raged and threw in the golden apple that famously led to the Trojan War. She was closely identified with Enyo, the goddess of war and a close companion of Ares.
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Name origin: Hawai’ian goddess of fertility and childbirth. Mother of many important deities (including Pele, Hi’iaka and Namaka) and herself among the first worshipped on the Hawai’ian islands. She repeatedly transforms herself from an old woman to a young girl, and returns to her homeland periodically to give birth to further generations of humans.
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Name origin: Roman Goddess of salt water and wife of Neptune. Salacia was the personification of the calm and sunlit aspect of the sea (although she may also have represented the gushing and overbearing waters). Name means “the salty one”.
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Sedna is an Inuit sea goddess, mother of all sea creatures and provider of food for the people. She is one of the most important Inuit figures.
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Deukalion, along with his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Pandora, lived in the northern reaches of Greece. Zeus, angered by the impiety of humankind at the time, sent the Great Deluge. Prometheus warned Deukalion and Pyrrha of the impending apocalypse and they survived by mounting a chest and reaching the dry peaks of Mount Parnassos. Once the waters receded, the couple consulted the Delphic Oracle on how to repopulate the earth.
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