Neptunian Outer Satellite Names Options

[volcanopele]

The four remaining, unnamed outer satellites of Neptune now have official names. S/ 2002 N 1 is now Halimede, S/ 2002 N 2 is now Sao, S/ 2002 N 3 is now Laomedeia, and S/ 2002 N 4 is now Neso.

Neso is unique as the most distantly orbiting satellite from any planet, with a semimajor axis of 48,387,000 km, or 0.32 au. With its eccentric orbit, it actually reaches farther away from Neptune than Mercury gets from the Sun. Also of note is Sao. While all these moons are technically named after Nereides, SAO is the acronym for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, discoverer Matthew Holman's home institution

[Rob Pinnegar]

It's too bad there isn't a statute of limitations on naming solar-system objects. If, for example, movie copyrights were used as the model, the discoverer would have to give the thing a name within 27 years, otherwise it would go into the public domain and anybody could name it.

Stephen Pile's great "Book of Heroic Failures" relates the story of some poor kid in 18th century England whose parents named him "Depressed Cupboard Cheesecake". That would make a good name for an obscure Saturnian moon, methinks.

Another possibility would be to name them after vegetables. Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae and... Artichoke.