Prometheus - New York City, NY
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 40° 45.520 W 073° 58.691
18T E 586249 N 4512469
This statue of Prometheus has become an icon for Rockefeller Center and New York City.
His namesake is a moon of Saturn.
Waymark Code: WMCHNZ
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 09/09/2011
Views: 34
Having a prominent spot in Rockefeller Center...the entire nation usually catches a glimpse of this work every Christmas when the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is lit above it... an event usually televised as it tends to serve as the kickoff to the Christmas season. The gilded bronze statue is also seen whenever there is a broadcast from the ice skating rink which is erected during the Winter.
Wikipedia (
visit link) has this to say about Prometheus who was a Titan:
"He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals.[2] Zeus then punished him for his crime by having him bound to a rock while a great eagle ate his liver every day only to have it grow back to be eaten again the next day. His myth has been treated by a number of ancient sources, in which Prometheus is credited with – or blamed for – playing a pivotal role in the early history of mankind. During the Greek War of Independence, Prometheus became a figure of hope and inspiration for Greek revolutionaries..."
The Wikipedia article (
visit link) of the moon named Prometheus informs us:
"...an inner satellite of Saturn. It was discovered in 1980 (some time before October 25) from photos taken by the Voyager 1 probe, and was provisionally designated S/1980 S 27.[3]
In late 1985 it was officially named after Prometheus, a Titan in Greek mythology.[4] It is also designated Saturn XVI (16).[5] Pronunciation for Prometheus is /pr?'mi??i?s/, US dict: pro·me'·the·?s; Greek: ???µ??e??.
This small moon is extremely elongated, measuring about 119 by 87 by 61 km. It has several ridges and valleys and a number of impact craters of about 20 km diameter are visible, but it is less cratered than nearby Pandora, Epimetheus and Janus. From its very low density and relatively high albedo, it seems likely that Prometheus is a very porous icy body. There is a lot of uncertainty in these values, however, and so this remains to be confirmed.[citation needed]
Prometheus acts as a shepherd satellite for the inner edge of Saturn's F Ring. Recent images from the Cassini probe show that the Promethean gravitational field creates kinks and knots in the F Ring as the moon 'steals' material from it. The orbit of Prometheus appears to be chaotic, as a consequence of a series of four 121:118 mean motion resonances with Pandora.[6] The most appreciable changes in their orbits occur approximately every 6.2 years,[1] when the periapsis of Pandora lines up with the apoapsis of Prometheus and the moons approach to within about 1400 km. Prometheus is itself a significant perturber of Atlas, with which it is in a 53:54 mean longitude resonance."