Exoplanets dubbed 'Vulcan', 'Romulus' and 'Female Pigeon'
A planet formation expert has decided he's not happy with the International Astronomical Union's insistence that exoplanets will be known solely by their "assigned scientific designation", and has come up with names for the 403 such bodies discovered to date. Wladimir Lyra chillingly made "extensive use of Wikipedia" to find …
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It all went wrong in 1790
Uranus was supposed to be called George, but it was over ridden by international agreement. Its still the superior name.
Bound to end in tears.
At the rate they're discovering exo-solar planets at the moment, we're going to need to get the Greeks and Romans to invent some more low-order deities. Lots of 'em and quickly too.
They could run out of material pretty fast and I pity the poor colonists in a few thousand years' time, who draw their first breaths on their new homeworld named after the god of recently discarded pyramid teabags....
Surely there's a market for sponsorship deals for exoplanets
For instance, alongside Female Pigeon we could have Sporty Cock, or "Le Coq Sportif" as our friends across the Channel say
A better use of wikipedia....
Having looked at his list, would have been to check that there weren't other existing planetary bodies with the same names.
Such as
asteroids (Romulus, Tros, Thetis)
a moon of Saturn (Prometheus)
after all there's been plenty of time for the classical figures to already have been used in naming.
@AC 15>59
I suspect that New Zealanders would find Sporty Cock hard to swallow.
Records on File
The records for this renaming can be found in the basement of the Department of Naming Conventions and Deli located at Magrathea, since this is where the planets were built to begin with.
Any claims to misidentifying planets can be filed with the Vogons, in triplicate, on the fourth Saturday of each decade, not counting leap years.
silly
Everyone shold know that once you start getting into massive numbers of planets, that you only give the interesting ones unique names. Same thing for stars.
Gallifrey
Is there no Gallifrey yet?
And what about that big long name that the green inflatable monster came from?
Re: It all went wrong in 1790
> Uranus was supposed to be called George, but it was over ridden by
> international agreement. Its still the superior name.
Well mine isn't.
I mean, when I get a ring of fire, I don't utter "By George". More like "JHFC" or something.
He must have used a script to get the names
The Wikipedia entry on Peristera clearly states that the name is the "feminine form of pigeon." I guess that he must have been using a script to dig out all of the references, because he certaintly didn't read them. After all, this is a Greek island with only five people living on it.
Want to name one?
If you want to name one of these planets please send me the current name, your required name, and payment in any major currency.
The International Planet Name Registry, Totally Genuine and Official, Trust Me!
@Tee Cee re. Bound To End In Tears
If Terry Pratchett is to be believed (of course he is!), there actually is a god of recently discarded pyramid tea bags (and many other small things).
I built a small temple to Him in the corner of my kitchen. I see no point causing offence if it can be avoided.
Bad news from the ruling council
You may be waiting a long time for a reply from the ruling council there- I heard they were overthrown in a coup.
@Matthew Smith
From Futurama
Professor: "I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all."
Fry: "Oh. What's it called now?"
Professor: "Urectum. "
Coo!
Let me be the first to coo "Welcome!" to our new female pigeon overladies!
Vulcan?
Wait a minute, Vulcan exploded already, I've seen it!
Voice from .ca
I want to see Planet Bob, Planet Doug, Solar System Trudeau, and Planets Joni Mitchell & Gordon Downey.
Other mythologies
Why stick to Roman mythology? They are fine for our own solar system, but for other solar systems, you could use names from Norse, Hindu, Polynesian, Egyptian or other mythologies.
To be consistent, you would restrict each mythology to a single solar system. That would probably make us run out of mythologies fairly quickly, though, but then we can use fictional "mythologies" such as from The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars etc. How about a solar system with planets called Tatooine, Alderaan, Dagobah and Naboo and another with planets called Gandalf, Galadriel, Beren, Hurin and so on?
@TeeCee
"At the rate they're discovering exo-solar planets at the moment, we're going to need to get the Greeks and Romans to invent some more low-order deities. Lots of 'em and quickly too."
Hence the opening paragraph of "Rendevous with Rama", IIRC.
They should name them after Pokemon
As I recall from when my kids were small, there's a limitless supply of those animated Japanese money generators.
Niven had the right idea
The planets of We Made It, Jinx, and Mount Look At That
I have a very strong feeling that by the time we actually start exploring the galaxy, the pioneers will be a lot more irreverent than the people back home
The Brady System!
Greg
Marsha
Peter
Jan
Bobby
Cindy
Mike
Carole
Alice
..and
Tiger
Here's a story
About a system named Brady...
How about we name them after...
... the first person to set foot on them...
I for one am looking forward to setting out on a colonial ship, landing down, claiming my farm and depositing my seed on the face of Paris.
Bah!
"Trekkie Names"????
Deep six these daft names in favour of more sensible, apposite and appropriate ones taken from Laryy Niven's "Known Space" stories: We Made It, Wunderland, Jinx etc etc etc.
See: "A Gift From Earth", "Tales of Known Space" and "World of Ptaavs" amongst others for ideas here.
Alterantively, use names from Lois McMaster Bujold's "Barrayar" books. We could start with "Jackson's Whole".
it's all fun and games
till someone fires a drop of red matter into the core.
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