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IAU: No, You Can't Name That Exoplanet
astroengine writes "The International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the official body that governs the designations of all celestial bodies — in their capacity of purveyors of all things 'official' has deemed attempts at crowdsourcing names for exoplanets illegitimate. 'In the light of recent events, where the possibility of buying the rights to name exoplanets has been advertised, the International Astronomical Union wishes to inform the public that such schemes have no bearing on the official naming process,' writes Thierry Montmerle, General Secretary of the IAU in Paris, France. Although the 'schemes' are not specifically named, the most popular U.S.-based "exoplanet naming" group Uwingu appears to be the target of today's IAU statement. Set up by Alan Stern, planetary scientist and principal investigator for NASA's Pluto New Horizons mission, Uwingu encourages the public to nominate and vote (for a fee) on names for the slew of exoplanets steadily being discovered."
You can name planets as you like. Whether you're understood or not depends on how many others follow your naming convention, of course.
Just like the bits, the names want to be free. Open source the naming of planets to wrest proprietary control of naming rights away from IAU.
Good luck stopping me; but besides that, as the number of them ramp up, we're going to have to change our naming methodologies anyways... probably to some compound lexical stuff, not unlike street addresses so that the same names can be used and reused and reused and not confuse anyone when spoken in proper context. Oh, a mission to Sol Terra Luna? Which one? Oh! The one over by way of Arcturus Region? You betcha! We'll have to define semiamorphous regions determined by medium shifts (voids, nebulae, rifts, arms, etc) and named after their most prominent, un, stellarmarks (think landmarks.) The brightest object in our vicinity is Arcturus, the the local region is likely to carry its name or some derivation of it... but our current naming metholodies (alpha lyre, etc) fail to account for the fact that alpha and beta have no relationship at all with one another, and can be further from each other than one is from us, except from lining up from our one unique perspective in space... once you travel elsewhere, that perspective is lost...
It should have been designated BH-6047-SE
With the possibility of hundreds of billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, EVERYONE should get their own planet...
So where's the IAU when I keep hearing this radio commercial for the bullshit "Internaltional Star Registry" from Rocky Mozell? Or did they already smack that one down, and all the suckers who keep giving him money to run commercials didn't get the memo?
The whores get mad when the sluts give it away for free.
If a billion people call a planet Bob, guess what, that planet is going to be called Bob regardless of whatever some US naming committee has to say about it.
So all welcome Bob the newest exoplanet!
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
It reminded me of the star naming schemes I read about decades ago. I checked to see what the IAU has to say about that. Whoever wrote that FAQ seems depressed at the sad state of intellect in commercial America.....
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
These guys should have nothing to say about it. It should be the person who finds it gets naming rights, they earned it. If they want to sell their rights that should be their option too.
Yes, it does seem like there should be some rigor to the process. I don't want my descendants emigrating to the planet "My Hairy Balls"* because I was drunk and happened to have some spare cash lying around that day.
*although it would, perhaps, be a poetic illustration of the circle of life.
-Styopa
A while back, some people thought it might be good to name the potentially habitable planets. Therefore, http://www.sinister.com/names_of_potentially_habitable_planets.html
My Social Studies teacher mentioned that there was so much black market trading in colonial America that we decided to base our currency on the Spanish dollar and "centavo" instead of the pound.
Official is what people use. If something isn't official and enough people use it, "official" changes to compensate; as in, for example, dictionaries.
There are a lot of groups and organizations that declare themselves the authorities in certain areas and set up rules and regulations largely by fiat, with no democratic representation whatsoever. The DEA and TSA come to immediately mind, but I know of at least a half-dozen others.
Of course, when the DEA makes a new rule or regulation, it goes into effect immediately and everyone changes to accommodate...
First off IAU has no authority to tell the public what they can and can't "officially" name anything neither do they have the right to redefine terms used by the public for thousands of years such as "planet". If they are seen as a legitimate authority within their little club good for them.
Second how can any of us be certain these exoplanets are actually planets since I doubt we can really tell whether they have yet to clear their neighborhood?
Finally spending money to name/vote on planets is a fairly seedy activity leaving me with a low opinion of both organizations.
Authority is given, though some think it can be taken. Those need a bit of a reminder of the contrary from time to time, eh?
If you believe that uwingu can sell you the right to name a planet, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn you can name!
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Shouldn't we ask whoever is living there what the name is?
Oh lord won't you buy me a planet of my own.
My friends all have Galaxie 500s,
I must make amends.
.
I'm counting on you, I.A.U., please don't let me down.
My boyfriend says you won't sell him a star
for my pretty name..
.
Prove that he loves me and sell him the next round orb,
Oh honey, won't you buy me an exoplanet to terraform ?
.
[hmm, i'll work on the rest of the lyrics later... gia]
... do something special: name an exoplanet after someone.
(Maybe it's only funny because on my way to work I used to drive past that outfit that names stars for you, registered the name in a book at the Library of Congress, and gave you a hokey star map so you could find it.)
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
As has every other science fiction writer who writes space opera or interstellar sf. Some of those planets might even exist ;-)
Mind, even though several of us might agree that there's a, say, Delta Pavonis III, it's unlikely that we'll agree on the non-designatory name (unless we're writing in the same shared universe). Frank Herbert called it Caladan in Dune, I call it Verdigris in my T-Space series (it's green with skyweed). Other authors have named planets in the Delta Pavonis system without being specific about whether or not they're third from their sun. These guys have the same problem.
Btw, the current naming convention for exoplanets is $PRIMARY-b, -c, -d .. etc in order of discovery, where the primary star is considered 'a'. SF conventional designation is I, II, III, IV etc (roman numerals) in order of average distance from the primary -- which assumes we know all the planets in a star's system.
-- Alastair
Sorry I have just been served a cease and desist order by WIPO, they claim authority. I guess they've reinterpreted the first word in their name.
I say we name all exoplanets "Pluto", just for spite.
Next you'll be telling me that my deeds to lunar real estate are not legally enforceable. :P
I'll get excited about what we're naming it when I CAN GO SEE IT. Where's my flipping star ship you bunch of physics wienies. I don't even have a flying freak'n car yet. Lazy bastards.