1020: "Orion Nebula"

[Bobsama]

Orion should probably be renamed Elvis.

[rhhardin]

Either way, the Romans called it a gladius.

Guess what they called a scabbard.

[J Thomas]

xkcd has always impressed me with its good spelling and grammar.

So, what's with the apostrophe in BRING'S ??

It's probably a continuation of the line drawn from the character to his speech bubble. Maybe the line was drawn first and then two extra lines of text were put in that erased part of it.

[Red Hal]

xkcd has always impressed me with its good spelling and grammar.

So, what's with the apostrophe in BRING'S ??

It's not an apostrophe, it's the link between two items of speech from the same character.

[EpicanicusStrikes]

We're no strangers to controversy. You know the rules and so do I. A full commitment's what I'm thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any other symposium. I just wanna tell you ...

It's time to talk about the fact that Orion clearly has a dong.

[furyguitar]

Speaking of bothersome, isn't it true that Orion is just a constellation, not a nebula? I remember that part of Men In Black...

As tstevens pointed out, there is Messier Object 42 (M42), also known as the Orion Nebula as it resides within the constellation of Orion.

The quote you are thinking of from MIB is related to the whole "The galaxy is on Orion's belt" - which, as we know, was referring to a collar on the cat, and not the belt of the constellation. They say that there is no galaxy on the belt of Orion. From wikipedia, regarding Orion's belt:

Orion's Belt or The Belt of Orion is an asterism within the constellation. It consists of the three bright stars ζ Ori (Alnitak), ε Ori (Alnilam), and δ Ori (Mintaka). Alnitak is approximately 800 light years away from earth and, including ultraviolet radiation, which the human eye cannot see, Alnitak is 100,000 times more luminous than the Sun.[13] Alnilam is approximately 1340 light years away from Earth, shines with magnitude 1.70, and with ultraviolet light is 375,000 times more luminous than the Sun.[12] Mintaka is 915 light years away and shines with magnitude 2.21. It is 90,000 times more luminous than the Sun and is a double star: the two orbit each other every 5.73 days.[11] Looking for Orion's Belt in the night sky is the easiest way to locate the constellation. In the Northern Hemisphere, Orion's Belt is best visible in the night sky during the month of January around 9:00 pm, when it is approximately around the local meridian.[1]

[Fire Brns]

Either way, the Romans called it a gladius.

Guess what they called a scabbard.

A sheath?

[Shidoshi]

We're no strangers to controversy. You know the rules and so do I. A full commitment's what I'm thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any other symposium. I just wanna tell you ...

It's time to talk about the fact that Orion clearly has a dong.

Exactly my thoughts when I first started reading that line: "Gee Willikers a rickroll on xkcd?"

[mike65535]

It's not an apostrophe, it's the link between two items of speech from the same character.

My faith is restored.

[RicKenney]

Okay, the thing is... Ya'll are being counter productive. I have been trying to get everyone to rename that grouping of stars for a couple of years. Orion out, Elvis in. Looking at the night sky and telling children that those stars weren't there before 1968. Look at the sky tonight and imagine a forever young Elvis standing up there. his hips in mid gyration, rhinestone belt shimmering, and his guitar outstretched just like in the old days, There are even stars to make up his famous pompadour. The new history of the night sky is born.

[bmonk]

Either way, the Romans called it a gladius.

Guess what they called a scabbard.

A sheath?

I'd say it's the other way around: we call the human equipment by the Latin word for "sheath". Blame the doctors and their Latin medical terms.

[MiB24601]

On this past New Year's Eve, I was at a fancy dress party which had an outdoor patio with an amazing view of the sky. I started giving an impromptu astronomy lecture, saying all the things I couldn't say back when I gave planetarium lectures.

First on the list: How the Orion Nebula is Orion's crotch.

[generalgeek]

As soon as I heard "We're no strangers to controversy," I thought it was gonna be a play on Never Gonna Give you Up.... I guess I was wrong

[A_of_s_t]

Since when is it a sword? It's his belt. Everybody knows the phrase "Orion's belt". It's not just those three stars across his waist.

Old ring belts tie in the front of the waist with a length hanging down from the tie, like this:

TAKE ALL OF MY INTERNETS. TAKE THEM.

[babble]

This would have been funnier if he'd used the word "penis". There's no place for the word "dong" outside of bell-ringing.

Hit random after viewing this and came up with #194 lol.

haha. Suppose at least this comic is trying to weasel its way out of the 'but what about 194' obvious question.

fun fact: You can sometimes see the Orion nebula even here in disgustingly light-polluted London. But it always looks kind of circular, splodgy, like a sporran, as someone already mentioned. Maybe it looks more like what this comic says it looks like when you have a better view of it.

[BobotheTeddy]

It´s time to talk about the fact that Dude has 3 arms in panel 2.

…or am i doing it wrong?

[mwoodling]

Never really noticed that here in Oz, but I guess I'll have to look up tonight.

My niece in Melbourne knows Orion as the 'saucepan'. It took me a full day to figure out what 'sosspun' was.

[Drooling Iguana]

...they still haven't done anything about the name of the planet Uranus.

Well, it's only the English-speaking world that has a problem with that.

There's also the fact that it breaks the naming scheme of the planets (every other one is named after a Roman god, but Uranus is Greek.)

Really, they should've just called it Planet George like its discoverer intended.

[alanbbent]

Clearly a three-armed man in the 2nd panel. No solid case can be made that any of the "arms" is a microphone.

[savanik]

Looking at Orion's pose, it does look like he should be shouting 'redefine ALL the constellation anatomies'.

By request...

All-the-Constellations.png (38.17 KiB) Viewed 1871 times

[xtifr]

The IAU? Those are the idiots who keep trying to convince us that Mercury is more like Jupiter than it is like Ceres, right?

As for "the galaxy on Orion's Belt": I'm pretty sure that if you look deeply enough in the region of space delineated by the three-star asterism called Orion's Belt, you'll find any number of galaxies. The error in the movie is not that there is no galaxy—it's in saying the galaxy!

[Eugo]

I think it's a little irresponsible to go mucking about with Orion when they still haven't done anything about the name of the planet Uranus.

Why would they? It's a problem in English only.

[EpicanicusStrikes]

[Matt]

Finally this gets some recognition. Been saying this for as long as I can remember

[Loco Ulysses]

No one's going to mention that belts don't go on your crotch? Or does Orion's dong start at his waist??

[addams]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant

Sure. Orion can have one.
This guy does.

[Djehutynakht]

You win for that. Not as much as the belt guy, but you get honorable mention at least.
________________________



I have reason to suspect that the IAU has run out of stuff to do.


And if we change the name of the planet Uranus then we have to get the classics students and go over all of Greek mythology. So many ancient texts to be edited...

Though I suppose it's less work than getting the whole of humanity to mature.

[Hennerson]

"Also on the agenda: What's with his hips?"

It's called contrapposto a sculptural device used in Ancient Greek statues which has the left shoulder/right hip higher

(http://www.xtimeline.com/__UserPic_Large/38362/evt091211143400042.jpg)

because it gives an illusion of movement to the sculpture as opposed to the rigidity of the 'geometric' statues that preceded them

(http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/upload/q4519224.jpg)

[Azkyroth]

I was expecting the joke to be that the Orion nebula was re-designated as a dwarf nebula for some trivial reason.

I didn't think "nebula" had the problem of having never been defined in the first place.

As for his hips, YOU try carrying around a dong that's visible for light years and see what it does to YOUR joints.

[Quicksilver]

I lol'd so hard.

[pbnjstowell]

Never looking at Orion the same again.

Also, isn't the small hips with wide shoulders thing supposed to be sexy on a guy? It'd probably be better if he had a head on his shoulders though.

[PrometheusDrake]

This would have been funnier if he'd used the word "penis". There's no place for the word "dong" outside of bell-ringing.

Considering the situation, wouldn't it be more fitting to talk about his astronomical unit?

[Kisama]

That is clearly neither a penis, nor a belt, nor a sporren - it's a tail. Orion was a furry!

...they still haven't done anything about the name of the planet Uranus.

Well, it's only the English-speaking world that has a problem with that.

There's also the fact that it breaks the naming scheme of the planets (every other one is named after a Roman god, but Uranus is Greek.)

Really, they should've just called it Planet George like its discoverer intended.

I vote in favour of Caelus

[Pfhorrest]

I vote in favour of Caelus

Caelus and Ouranos really shouldn't be suitable names for stars anyway. They should be reserved for the backdrop which lies beyond them all, as vast as the unending body of mother Terra/Gaia belo... oh wait, nevermind.

[Kisama]

I vote in favour of Caelus

Caelus and Ouranos really shouldn't be suitable names for stars anyway. They should be reserved for the backdrop which lies beyond them all, as vast as the unending body of mother Terra/Gaia belo... oh wait, nevermind.

I now picture Caelus/Ouranos as a cheeky imp sitting upon the shoulders of Atlas...

[Lewton]

We're no strangers to controversy. You know the rules and so do I. A full commitment's what I'm thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any other symposium. I just wanna tell you ...

It's time to talk about the fact that Orion clearly has a dong.

I'm so relieved I'm not the only one who's brain went there

[Nergye]

We're no strangers to controversy. You know the rules and so do I. A full commitment's what I'm thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any other symposium. I just wanna tell you ...

It's time to talk about the fact that Orion clearly has a dong.

Orion's dick-rolled! D:

[EpicanicusStrikes]

Really, they should've just called it Planet George like its discoverer intended.

"You can't call a planet 'Bob'. "

"So now you're the boss. You're the King of Bob. "

"Can't we just call it 'Earth'? "

"No one said you have to live on Bob. "

"I'm never calling it that"

[thesingingaccountant]

...they still haven't done anything about the name of the planet Uranus.

Well, it's only the English-speaking world that has a problem with that.

And it's primarily Americans who would have problems with Orion's Dong.

[belliott4488]

I think it's pretty crappy of Randall to post this comic in February, as Orion is getting ready to disappear from the Northern hemisphere for the Summer. All these xkcd fans are going to be running out at sunset trying to catch the setting of the dong ...