[X] My Assistant

[Rob Pinnegar]

Something I just noticed: Clyde Tombaugh's 100th birthday would have been next February. Couldn't say for sure, but I'm guessing the discoverers of the new big TNO were probably hoping to announce their discovery then (it would've been nice timing). Pity about those damned hackers spoiling it.

[Bob Shaw]

Something I just noticed: Clyde Tombaugh's 100th birthday would have been next February. Couldn't say for sure, but I'm guessing the discoverers of the new big TNO were probably hoping to announce their discovery then (it would've been nice timing). Pity about those damned hackers spoiling it.

Rob:

I'm sure the Deep Old Ones could cope with Tombaugh, whose name sounds entirely in tune with the aims and objectives of MIT. That's the Miskatonic Institute of Theomancy.

I am, indeed a fully paid up Friend of Yog-Sothoth. I kid not, ask me about The Voyage to The Bottom.

The basic principle of us acolytes of the Elder Gods is not so much to be not eaten at all (as that is what humans are for), as to simply be eaten LAST! Ai! Cthulhu!

(gulp)

Bob Shaw

[Guest_Myran_*]

Rob Pinnegar said: Pity about those damned hackers spoiling it.

Im sorry to say, but that fairy tale about hackers have been debunked.
Dont believe me but see this quote by mr Brian G. Marsden in one email exchange that was made public in regard to this matter.

Marsden: 'As I say, I know nothing about any decision to describe the above
situation as "hacking", which it clearly isn't, since everything was public
information in the internet.'

[ilbasso]

ALF once had names for the two planets beyond Pluto.  They were something like Dave and Steve.  Anyone remember?  Or care to admit they know? 

I'd personally vote for Gitney and Cloyd, the two moonmen from "Rocky and Bullwinkle".

[dvandorn]

Of course, we could always call it Nosmo, who was King of the Moon Men. I believe they came up with that name from looking at a No Smoking sign and re-arranging the space -- NOSMO KING.

Then again, we could use Chauncey and Edgar as the names for new TNOs... as in:

"There's something you don't see every day, Chauncey."

"What's that, Edgar?"

"A six-foot-tall metal-munching mouse."

-the other Doug

[SFJCody]

It seems almost certain to me now that if it is recognized as a planet, it will be a feminine name probably between Persephone/Artemis/Minerva.

You may be right:

"If it is a planet, they have told me they want to go for a Greek or Roman god,' Brown said. He's personally pulling for the name Persephone, in that case. But that leads to another question: Should planets be allowed to take names already being used by other celestial objects? An asteroid currently lays claim to that Greek goddess's name.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,...3009692,00.html

[Rob Pinnegar]

Haha! I figured someone would pick up that Cthulhu Mythos reference a few posts back! Ia!

As for the name Persephone being taken, no big deal. If I remember right, one of the asteroids is named Europa, and that doesn't cause much confusion. When referring to the asteroid Europa you just have to remember to use the number. (There's a Ganymed, too, without the last "e".)

Cthulhu fhtagn,
Rob
Innsmouth, Alberta (glub, glub, glub...)

[Bob Shaw]

Haha! I figured someone would pick up that Cthulhu Mythos reference a few posts back! Ia!

As for the name Persephone being taken, no big deal. If I remember right, one of the asteroids is named Europa, and that doesn't cause much confusion. When referring to the asteroid Europa you just have to remember to use the number. (There's a Ganymed, too, without the last "e".)

Cthulhu fhtagn,
Rob
Innsmouth, Alberta (glub, glub, glub...)

Rob:

Is this the Unnamed Lovecraft Forum then?

Ai!

Bob Shaw

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

In that case, how about calling it The Planet That Must Not Be Named? (Although I notice that, in Lovecraft's stories, He Who Must Not Be Named usually ends up getting named anyway.)

[slinted]

In that case, how about calling it The Planet That Must Not Be Named?

Or, to take this a step further, given the current fervor over catagory naming...

The (Must Not Be Named) That Must Not Be Named

[edstrick]

I want to name something out there after Igor!
Mad scientist's lab assistants need more respect!

[Rob Pinnegar]

Or, to take this a step further, given the current fervor over catagory naming...

The (Must Not Be Named) That Must Not Be Named

Beautiful.

Y'know, I just was looking at the list of named asteroids (which now that I think of it didn't seem to include TNOs -- but anyways), and the designated names "Lovecraft", "Cthulhu", "Yog-Sothoth", and "Nyarlathotep" weren't taken. (Admittedly I forgot to check for "Yuggoth"). Given the number of unnamed TNOs out there, surely a few could be named after Lovecraft's inventions. But of course that's up to the discoverers.

Even though it would never happen, I'd _love_ to see a "R'lyeh Planitia" on Pluto...

Cheers
Rob

(Edit: Forgot to mention that "Unnamed Lovecraft Forum" was great too.)

[Bob Shaw]

Given the number of unnamed TNOs out there, surely a few could be named after Lovecraft's inventions.

Rob:

'Inventions'? Ha! You wish!

Just wait...

Ai!

Bob Shaw

[ljk4-1]

Is there really going to be a problem with people confusing a virtually unknown planetoid with the now famous 10th Planet/Big KBO if they have the same name?

Not until we are established in the Sol system as a species, at least.

And I say it is not a major planet, nor is Pluto. They are KBOs.

[David]

Is there really going to be a problem with people confusing a virtually unknown planetoid with the now famous 10th Planet/Big KBO if they have the same name?

No. But it's the IAU's business to make things neat and tidy (which of course they aren't). Frankly, if you don't use names that are "already taken" by asteroids, that pretty much rules out using feminine names from Greco-Roman mythology altogether.

And I say it is not a major planet, nor is Pluto.  They are KBOs.

Ah, but the "KB" just tells you where the object is ("real estate"), and the "O" just tells you that it is... an "Object". Still leaving the question: what kind of Object is it? What are Mercury, Mars, or the Earth? CJOs? (Cis-Jovian Objects?).

On the name question, it ought to be realized that there is a (sketchy) mythological rationale to the naming of planets from Jupiter on; it is not entirely "reach into the encyclopedia and grab random mythological name".
According to tradition, the fifth and sixth planets were Jupiter and Saturn, Jupiter being the king of the gods, and Saturn, his father, being king of the Titans. Uranus, the next out, was logically Saturn's father, as Saturn was Jupiter's father:
Uranus
.|
Saturn
.|
Jupiter

Obviously, the next planet out should have been Uranus' father, but mythology unfortunately does not provide Uranus with a father. The astronomers therefore went back to Jupiter, and started naming planets after his brothers, as follows:

Uranus
.|
Saturn
.|_______________
.|............. |..............|
Jupiter.....Neptune...Pluto

Jupiter also has three sisters, but as they (Juno, Ceres, and Vesta) are all names of well-known sizeable main-belt asteroids, they are not really available.
The other male names in this family are:

Uranus
.|_____________________________________
.|..............|..............|.............|...........|................|
Saturn.....Oceanus..Coeus....Crius....Hyperion....Iapetus
.|_______________
.|............. |..............|
Jupiter.....Neptune...Pluto

Hyperion and Iapetus are of course two well-known moons of Saturn (VII and VIII, respectively). The names Oceanus, Coeus, and Crius have never to my knowledge been applied to any astronomical body. In addition to the above brothers of Saturn, there were six "Titanesses", his sisters, all of whose names have been used:
Rhea: Saturn's moon V and Asteroid 577 Rhea
Tethys: Saturn's moon III
Themis: Asteroid 24 Themis
Mnemosyne: Asteroid 57 Mnemosyne
Theia (also Thia, Thea): Asteroid 405 Thia
Phoebe: Saturn's moon IX

If one were to keep these names within the same "family tree" by using, say, "Oceanus" for 2003 UB313, there would still be two unused names left over for the next two Pluto-plus KBOs that come down the pike. After that, I suppose you'd have to start using the names of the Cyclopes (Brontes, Steropes, and Arges) and the Hekatoncheires (Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes), and further non-Titanic children of Uranus.

--As an added note, the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hekatoncheires lived (or were imprisoned) in Tartarus, a very distant, dark and sunless realm, where the gods disposed of trouble-makers. Oceanus was an exception; he lived in the "river Ocean", imagined as a great circular body of water flowing around the (flat) earth.