By Zoe Kleinman
\nTechnology reporter, BBC News<\/p>\n
[Two Examples of Picture Captions]:<\/p>\n
1. Life on Mars: Materia cana rerum stratarum in Melani Chasmate – or light-toned stratified materials in Melas Chasma.<\/p>\n
2. Mass wasting in Valles Marineris (Lapsus massarum in Valle Marineris)<\/p>\n
Pictures of the surface of Mars, taken from Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), are to be captioned in Latin on social media outlets as part of an outreach project.<\/p>\n
The Latin captions will be published from 28 August on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook.<\/p>\n
The photography project is known as HiRise (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) and has run since 2006.<\/p>\n
The Latin translations are being done by 18 volunteers coordinated in the UK.<\/p>\n
“We were inspired by the Pope’s Latin feed,” HiRise spokesman Ari Espinoza from the University of Arizona told the BBC.<\/p>\n
The then Pope Benedict XVI sent his first tweet in the ancient language at the beginning of the year and also used Latin in his resignation speech.<\/p>\n
“Some of the science greats – [Johannes] Kepler, [Isaac] Newton wrote in Latin – this is a tie to the past but we’re looking at the future,” Mr. Espinoza added.<\/p>\n
Captions are already provided in 10 languages as well as English, including Hebrew, Icelandic and Russian.<\/p>\n
While some modern scientific terms had challenged the Latin translators, more mundane phrases had also faced scrutiny, said Dr. Lorna Robinson, director of the Iris Project, a UK-based Latin language outreach initiative, which is coordinating the team.<\/p>\n
“There has been debate over whether to keep the Latin more simple or make it as close to classical Latin as possible,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We reached a compromise – wanted to keep it clear and accessible to outsiders without being wrong.”<\/p>\n
The word “possible” had divided opinion among the language experts because it had not been used in the same way as it was today, Dr. Robinson said.<\/p>\n
“We went for ‘possibilis’ – which means ‘possible’ but in terms of classical Latin it wasn’t really used in the way we use it,” she said.<\/p>\n
The phrase under scrutiny was a structure described as “with possible ice” which would not have been a format familiar to traditional speakers, Dr. Robinson added.<\/p>\n
“One of the fascinating things for me has been discovering how many parts of Mars have been named in Latin,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It will be interesting for people to see these connections. Terra [is Latin for] terrain, for example – most people will be able to work that out.”<\/p>\n
The HiRise camera was designed for continuous use until the fuel on the MRO runs out in 2023, and sends back over 12 images each day, said Mr. Espinoza.<\/p>\n
“So far we have 30,000 images. Beautiful dunes, defrosting carbon dioxide ice, gulleys and impact craters – it’s Mars,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The [translation] group we have created has done a lot of talking. You just don’t learn about impact craters or carbon dioxide ice in Latin at school.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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