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Our Solar System's Nomenclature Wars
RobotRunAmok writes "Plutinos, Centaurs, Cubewanos - the names Detroit has given some of their next gen SUVs? Nope. They are among the many colorful, and, some complain, confusing names which astronomers have given to celestial objects in the last decade. Ever wonder about the system of organization which astronomers use to name new space rocks? Apparently, so have many astronomers, because, according a Yahoo!/Space.com article, it's neither very systematic nor organized. Fear not: some clever star-minded chaps from Oxford and Cambridge have a plan to wring some order from the damp dishrag of astro-nomenclature chaos."
Constellations with stars named with greek letters alpha, beta etc, and their planets with a single numeral. "Alpha Carinae 3". Moons similiarly, "Alpha Carinae 3 b" or something. Forget about the comets and asteroids, they are random generated and you can bump into them anywhere. As long as things go into a nice tree format it'll be simple.
A complex heap of space rocks is entirely another matter. Imagine naming computers connected to Internet in a way that would tell their physical location, operating system and connection speeds. Yeah, you could say those change, but so do the space rocks, colliding into each other or dancing around in gravity wells.
Reminds me of the good chaps in Lapland, where they have place names like "vittumaisenoja", "fucking goddamn river"..
I dont think they are talking about singular objects, they still name comments and asteroids pretty randomly at first, then the person who discovers it gets to name it (typically). Like Shoemacher-Levy 9... Stars usually have two names, actually. One is the constellation its in followed by a letter or number to signify its brightness. And the other is a 'given' name, usually after greek mythology or something. So you could have Orion-beta which could be the start Beatleguise(sp). Oh, and I dont actually think beatleguise is orion-beta, but.. you get the idea.
:)
What the article was talking about was the difference between a NEO (Near Earth Object), a Kuiper belt object (really far away), etc. Personally I dont see what all the fuss is about.
-Bill
-Bill
In fact, that's more or less the way Canada was actually named by Europeans. Check this out.
What the article was talking about was the difference between a NEO (Near Earth Object), a Kuiper belt object (really far away), etc. Personally I dont see what all the fuss is about. :)
If a NEO's close to the Earth then it's clearly within our solar system. And if this NEO's within the system then how can it destroy the system from without?
Man, I'm getting confused here waiting for this Revolutions trailer to download. My astronomy and sci-fi is becoming confusd - there must be a glitch in the system messing with my synaptic pathways. Yeah, that's it. That or I'm getting damn desperate waiting for the third movie to come out.
(Oh, and remember, it's Thursday and it's The Matrix so it's OK not to hate the MPAA in this instance. The Slashdot Geek FAQ says so.)
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Sometimes three. The very brightest stars get given a proper name and are either Greek, Roman or even Arabic in origin. Naturally, very, very few stars get given a proper name.
The letter-number system you're talking about is the Bayer System (named after German astronomer, Johann Bayer) and works much as you described. To continue your example, Betelgeuse has the Bayer designation, Alpha Orionis (being the brightest star in the constellation Orion).
The other main system is known as Flamsteed Numbering (named for English Astronomer, John Flamsteed) and works by listing the stars in each constellation by order of right ascension. Betelgeuse is therefore also known as 58 Orionis.
There are other numbering systems but they are only used for non-naked-eye-visible stars.
Phobos and Deimos are companions to the god Mars. They ride with him into battle, on his chariot of war, spreading unpleasantness. Most of the moons are named that way (for companions to the gods for which their planet is named) . . . all the ones I can think of, at least.