How Do Scientists Name Space Objects?
159How are Astronomical Objects Named?
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Ever looked at the night sky and wondered how we arrived at naming the big, round, cheese-like object above us the “Moon”? Or how a simple bunch of seven stars arranged at some way made us think “Hey, that looks like a bear. Let’s call that Ursa Major!” Or how we lost words at something so magnificent, and so beyond our understanding that we just end up calling it “The Great Attractor”? Come with us in a journey of discovering how these space objects are named!
Who names the objects in space?
The task of naming and cataloguing what we see in the evening sky belongs to a special group under the International Astronomical Union, or the IAU. Ever since their founding in 1919, it has been their duty to set up guidelines, and form committees that determine the appropriate naming schemes for planets, stars, constellations, satellites…practically everything that is observable in our known universe. Thanks to these guys, we have a know what to call any star we point in the night sky.
The Solar System Family: Planets
Let’s start our adventure by knowing more about our closest neighbors, shall we?
If you’re a fan of classical mythology, it’s hard to miss how almost all the planets in our Solar System are named after popular mythological characters.
Back in the ancient times, five of the nine planets were observable using the naked eye. Well, what else do Romans look up to? Their deities! This is the reason why the astronomers thought of naming these planets according to the traits of their gods.
For instance, the prettiest and brightest one is compared to the goddess of beauty, Venus.
One planet was bright red like blood, so they thought it is reminiscent of the god of war, Mars.
Another moves so fast that it reminded them of the messenger god, Mercury.
The slowest and farthest one must be an old god and the father of them all, Saturn.
and, the biggest one is the king, Jupiter.
This theme caught on, so, when three more planets were discovered -- Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto – this became the standard theme. Of course, this is all before Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet, which is a story covered in another video, by the way.
The same system was applied to naming minor planets and asteroids, with preference to female characters from the Greco-Roman classics, like for instance, Vesta, Pallas, Juno, and Eros. Everyone in the family gets the same theme.
The Solar System Family: The Moons
Now, we move on to the orbiters of the planets: natural satellites, or moons.
Technically, there are a few ways to name moons. There is a boring way, and then there was the fun way.
The boring way was naming the moon with the planet it revolves around, plus a Roman numeral equivalent to its order of closeness to the planet. For example, if I had found a moon on Saturn, and it’s the 7th closest to it, its technical name would be “Saturn VII”
Since the planets were already named before the Greco-Roman gods, astronomers then decided to extend this theme to the moons.
Particularly speaking, astronomers choose the names of mythological characters that are related to the planet which they revolve around.
For instance, the Martian moons are named after the sons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.
The moons of Jupiter were named after either his lovers or children, like for example, the Gallilean moons, Io, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
Saturn’s moons were named after Titans and Giants, since Saturn himself was a Titan.
Neptune’s moons were characters that were somehow involved with the sea, and Pluto’s were characters who once walked the underworld, and Uranus’ were taken from the Shakespearean and Alexander Pope’s universe.
Even a lot of planetary features, like craters and mountains, have names derived from mythology.
I think we can say that if we were to study all the names of the objects of the solar system, we would also learn a lot about Greek and Roman mythology, right? Talk about a real renaissance man.
The Solar System Family: Comets
You know how big families always have that one cousin who rarely shows up and is often on the move? Well, if the Solar System is a family, then that cousin is the comets.
In the early 20th century, these objects were named after the person who discovers them. A few examples of these are Halley’s Comet, discovered by Edmond Halley, and Encke’s Comet, discovered by Johann Franz Encke. This also became the naming convention for the preceding discovered comets, allowing up to three people names separated by a dash, like IRAS–Araki–Alcock…that is until people who has dash on their names made it problematic. This was when our original heroes, the IAU, stepped in to standardize the naming system.