h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Galaxy Babe

I'm your sub-editor for Neptune's Moons - Facts, Fables and Folklore. The new version is here A87805795 - please subscribe!

I really enjoyed reading this - I like Greek Mythology and mathematical astronomy, and this Entry really brought things to life

I've read through and made only minor tweaks, but I have a couple of questions:

In the Psamanthe section, the moon is 47 m km distant from Neptune - is that 47 million km distant?

In the Neptune XIV section, the sentence "As if to prove that our Solar System is in a constant state of flux, the discovery of Neptune's 14th moon, designated S/2004 N 1, was announced in July 2013" sounds a bit odd to me.

In particular, the word "flux" made me think at first that the Solar System is not behaving in a predictable way, so new bodies are appearing randomly, but I presume it is more that our knowledge/understanding of the Solar System is constantly being improved/updated. Is my thinking correct?

Thank you

Hi SashaQ! I've subscribed

In the Psamanthe section, the moon is 47 m km distant from Neptune - is that 47 million km distant? Yes, feel free to adjust that

Yes, the technology is improving, I suppose the Solar System is in a constant state of flux "from our point of view". After all, the Sun never went round the Earth, just because that was once the popular belief. Neptune XIV was always there, it's just that no-one had seen it or recognised it until 2013.

I'm glad you are enjoying this article, I tried to make the constellations project more interesting by adding mythology and Earth-based stories/popular culture to add interest to all the facts & figures. I do feel it engages the reader more, and maybe gives them ideas!

Thanks a lot for subbing this!

GB

Thanks GB

My pleasure

I've tweaked the sentence in the Neptune XIV section - see what you think.

I read through this once more and I'm happy with it except I spotted just one more thing I have a question about:

"The Nereids ... were the friendly daughters of Nereus and Doris who rode dolphins and hippocampus (seahorses)."

Are the creatures 'hippocamps' rather than 'hippocampus'?

Yes, they are

Thanks

I'm happy with this now - let me know if you are and I'll send it on its way

thanks very much for subbing it

GB