Roland
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Post by Roland on Aug 3, 2005 20:29:17 GMT 11
Name your own planet
From correspondents in Paris
August 03, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
SHOULD it be named after a Greek or Roman god? A great scientist or artist? How about calling it after a character in the "Star Wars" film series? Or your best friend?
The British magazine New Scientist has called on readers to help suggest a name for the solar system's 10th planet, whose discovery was announced last week by a team led by US astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology.
The new world has been given the provisional designation of 2003 UB313.
But Brown has 10 years in which to think of a catchier name and have it approved by a panel of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Brown, a fan of TV's Warrior Princess, has given the informal name of Xena to 2003 UB313, a frozen orb some 15 billion kilometres from Earth, New Scientist said on its website (www.newscientistspace.com).
"But that was our tongue-in-cheek internal name, never intended for public consumption," Brown told the magazine.
Under the IAU's nomenclature guidelines, names should be pronounceable, non-offensive, 16 characters or less in length and preferably one word.
Names should not be too similar to an existing name of a minor planet or natural planetary satellite.
In addition, names for persons or events known primarily for their military or political activities are acceptable only after 100 years have elapsed since the person died or the event occurred.
Commercial names are not allowed, and the names of pet animals are discouraged.
Tee Hee. This looks like fun! Anyone else got a suggestion?
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Post by Cat-Eyes on Aug 3, 2005 21:10:01 GMT 11
Dante
Ok, so it is my cat, but still, it's an awesome name!
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Gambit
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yay. tis me
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Post by Gambit on Aug 3, 2005 21:38:28 GMT 11
hmmmm...planet Gambit doesnt sound too bad  or perhaps planet Icecube? |
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Post by Rushton on Aug 3, 2005 21:53:52 GMT 11
Well to be an absolute nerd... All of the planets are named for the Roman Gods and Godesses taken from the main group of twelve known as the Dii Consentes;
Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Vesta, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Neptunus, Volcanus, and Apollo.
(Yay for art history lecture today!! see what I learnded!!)
Vesta, Ceres and Diana are already asteroids - and really naming a planet Diana just brings up princess Di associations - bleh
So I'll vote for Volcanus - which is quite cool.
OR I'll name it after myself - planet Rigel - it has a nice ring to it 
Then again Rigel is already a star in the constellation Orion - Darn!!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2005 23:09:56 GMT 11
And yet strangely, many of the moons are named after Greek figures. Like Jupiter's Ganymede, Europa, Io, all of which are young women/men that he seduced! And then there's Mars' Phobos and Deimos, the son's of Ares [the greek equivalent of Mars]. And apparently they were the Gods of fear and terror.
...Yeah! Continuing the nerd chain!
So maybe they could name it after a greek deity as well? Ah, Artemis? Hestia? Demeter? Hera? Maybe not Hephaistos for the pronunciation trouble!Or Chiron for the planet's proximity to Pluto. But I admit Rigel's vote for Volcanus sounds pretty darn good! And hey, don't forget the Roman Godess Flora! What a great name for a planet that would be.
And because it's completely random, Octocat.
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Post by Dameon on Aug 3, 2005 23:12:11 GMT 11
I vote for Octocat! That's so random!
Volcanus is cool!!! Hestia is good. Is tehr anything called Juno yet? If not, the Hera perhaps.
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Post by Dark One on Aug 4, 2005 9:36:54 GMT 11
Volcanus would be too similar to Vulcan, a planet which was originaly though to orbit the sun inside the orbit of mercury. I think it turned out to be a large asteroid.
As an interesting side-note: The Ancient Americans had records of 10 planets in the solar system millenia ago, and they were all observed with the naked eye. Tis a bog mystery...
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Post by Min on Aug 4, 2005 9:49:13 GMT 11
Oooooh...what about Erebus, Greek god of darkness, or Nyx, his wife?
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Post by Swallow on Aug 4, 2005 11:16:58 GMT 11
Rupert! Rupert i tells ye!!
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Post by Dameon on Aug 4, 2005 11:25:01 GMT 11
Nah, Phil!
Or Doris.
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Roland
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Post by Roland on Aug 4, 2005 12:15:17 GMT 11
I was actually thinking Persephone.
You know the chick that got stuck in the Underworld with Hades. Thought it has a nice ring, given this planet is beyond Pluto.
But failing that, Marvin is good.
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Post by brydie on Aug 4, 2005 14:46:04 GMT 11
TURKS! I was going to say Marvin as well Great minds think alike!
So, if it's not Marvin, then it definately has to be Brydie. No boubts about it 
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Post by Cat-Eyes on Aug 6, 2005 17:51:00 GMT 11
As an interesting side-note: The Ancient Americans had records of 10 planets in the solar system millenia ago, and they were all observed with the naked eye. Tis a bog mystery... Some of them were probably asteroids and comets and that kind of thing, since it's impossible to see more than about 5? 6? 7? planets with the naked eye. Cat |
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Post by Timm on Aug 6, 2005 22:56:17 GMT 11
How about 'Zork'?  |
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Post by Talmina on Aug 6, 2005 23:25:12 GMT 11
im going for a greek name, chirons out though cos i know theres something out there called chiron, i just cant remember what.
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Post by Timm on Aug 6, 2005 23:43:38 GMT 11
Is that 'Charon', Pluto's moon?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2005 0:31:21 GMT 11
How about 'Zork'? ZORK! The almighty carpet covered pole in my school library! Inspiration for such inane year 9 maxims like "may Zork be with you!" and "is Zork, is good". What a fantastic idea! And yeah, I guess it would make more sense for Pluto's moons to have the name Charon than say the new planet itself. What with him only being a lowly ferryman and all. I think there should be more feminine planets so my money would be on Vesta [Hestia's roman counterpart] for continuity and because she, like the new planet, is not as prominent as the rest. I'm not sure about Juno, because it's such a small planet and she was after all the consort of the most powerful Olympian. But it's still preferable to Xena, as much as I love that anachronistic show! |
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Post by Dark One on Aug 9, 2005 9:15:51 GMT 11
Is that 'Charon', Pluto's moon? Yep, thats the one As an interesting side-note: The Ancient Americans had records of 10 planets in the solar system millenia ago, and they were all observed with the naked eye. Tis a bog mystery... Some of them were probably asteroids and comets and that kind of thing, since it's impossible to see more than about 5? 6? 7? planets with the naked eye. Cat Hmm, i still like to believe that they saw the planets somehow. They managed to predit the precession, and calculated the calendar with uncanny precision. |
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Elondriel
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Don't fret precious I'm here...
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Post by Elondriel on Aug 9, 2005 13:50:07 GMT 11
Qtn, isn't the 10th planet a double with pluto? I swear i heard a while back that they discovered the then 'planet x' but that it was with pluto? can sum1 forward a web site so i can catch up on the latest discovery. And how big is the planet? i remember that there was sum discrepency bout whether pluto was really a planet or not cause of its size, orbit etc (sorry, was studying astronomy and space science at 1 stage at uni(.
Still a new planet is kool, maybe Cypherion
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Post by Lix on Aug 10, 2005 21:44:32 GMT 11
if names of pets arent allowed why is there a pluto? |
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Post by Talmina on Aug 10, 2005 22:54:03 GMT 11
i think the one that was with pluto was charon elondriel, i remember that from this talk we got from astronomers we got at school years ago, cos i thought it was weird that they could work out which one was orbiting the other, they are almost the same size
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Post by Dark One on Aug 12, 2005 9:35:36 GMT 11
I seem to remember that there was conjecture about a 'dark star' that orbited the sun outside Pluto's orbit. It was supposed to interact with the Oort Cloud every few million years and send comets and other debris spiralling into the solar system, and cause the regular extinctions on Earth.
By the way, we're about 70,000 years overdue for the next one...
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Roland
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Post by Roland on Aug 12, 2005 19:35:55 GMT 11
meh, the difference between 70,000 and 100,000 years is nada in the cosmic sense. No point worrying. If Armageddon comes, it comes. At least Ben Affleck will come to save us |
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Post by Dark One on Aug 15, 2005 23:21:01 GMT 11
Well, according to my Planetary Society magazine, we may have to watch out for an impact with a NEO (Near Earth Object) around 2036..
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Maeve
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Post by Maeve on Aug 16, 2005 2:56:47 GMT 11
the thing about the greek/roman god names is that they all hold some relevance to the planet (jupiter being the king of the gods is the name of the largest planet, plus one with storms just like jupiter the god can create lightning) if a planet was to be called volcan it would make more sense if it was a fiery rocky planet (preferrably with a volcano) considering that volcan is god of the forge/fire and he grew up in a volcano  i like the idea of naming it persephone or proserpina (which is her latin name) but if it was to be a latin god i think it would be cool to call it Janus who is the god of Beginnings/ passageways it sounds abit cheesy but i think it sort of suits the last planet as this god has two faces one which faces the past and the other the future |
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