[X] My Assistant

[Rob Pinnegar]

One bothersome thing about the naming scheme of Saturn's moons is that the one moon in the Solar System that most obviously deserves to be named after the two-faced god "Janus" ended up being called Iapetus instead. Also, since the mythological Iapetus was the father of Epimetheus, Prometheus, and Atlas, the moon that ended up being called Janus would really be much better suited to being named Iapetus. So, in a way, Janus and Iapetus have got each other's names.

(This all has to do, incidentally, with John Herschel's naming scheme for Saturnian moons, which suggests that they all be named after the Titans. "Janus" doesn't appear on this list, so it didn't get used at first. Of course, the convention didn't stick; it was broken with the naming of Mimas and Enceladus, though some subsequent discoveries have been named after other Titans.)

So I thought I'd start a topic on what Solar System bodies really should have different names, based on the importance of the Greco-Roman gods they are named after, and on information we have access to in the 21st century which the bodies' discoverers didn't know. There isn't much point to this, since obviously the names can't be changed now, but I thought it'd be fun to toss some ideas around.

The only other major change I'd make, if I had my "druthers" (ah there, Walt Kelly) would be to switch the names of the "Big Four" asteroids with those of the Galilean moons. It's kind of silly to name a 250-km asteroid after the Queen of Olympus when there's a body twenty times bigger named after a shepherd.

[Edit: Upon a bit more reflection, I can think of two others. One of these is so glaringly axiomatic to anyone who speaks English that, naturally, I didn't think of it at first. The other is not so obvious and I'll wait to see if anyone else comes up with it.]

[tasp]

Introduction to Asteroids lists several naming problems.

1036 Ganymed and Ganymede

203 Kallisto and Callisto

38 Leda and Leda

85 Io and Io

106 Dione and Dione

593 Titania and Titania


Also, several pairs of asteroids are confusingly named.

908 Buda and 1158 Luda

1266 Tone and 924 Toni ( by now there is probably a Tony out there too . . . .)

1792 Reni and 1371 Resi

265 Anna and 1668 Hanna

(There is quite a list of these)




I suppose we can caution folks to be careful picking names, but once IAU confers the blessing, we be stuck with the it.

[Rob Pinnegar]

In other news...

1266 Tone and 924 Toni ( by now there is probably a Tony out there too . . . .)

Well, as long as the number is included, it shouldn't be a problem. That's the key.

A far worse problem can be found in the naming of the chemical elements. Four of them are named after the town of Ytterby in Sweden: yttrium, ytterbium, erbium and terbium. Letting a discoverer name their discovery is all fine and dandy but this is bloody confusing! Chemistry is difficult enough to learn without throwing curveballs like this at the students.

Don't get me started on "metal-rich stars"...