Posted on 03/23/2009 1:48:42 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
My suggestion, which was not adopted, was that each planet be named for its stellar parent as usual, but then be designated by its orbital period in days, to one decimal point . The orbital periods may certainly be expected to be constrained to within a tenth of a day or so. No two planets could be confused (unless there are Trojan planets which share orbits but may be rare, and at any rate might have the additional unambiguous designations of i and ii, as needed.) Thus we would have Gliese 876-1.9, Gliese 876-30.9, and Gliese 876-60.1. Those with a bent for history would have to look up the discovery order, instead of the astronomer having to sort through a list of letters to figure out which is the one to observe for a transit or radial velocity data.
Similarly we would have 55 Cancri-2.9, 55 Cancri-14.6, 55 Cancri-44.3, 55 Cancri-260, and 55 Cancri-5218. Now why make such a fuss about this now (if writing an article about it can be considered a fuss)? Over 340 extrasolar planets have already been discovered and things have seemed to work out OK so far, right? The reason is because current space missions may soon discover thousands of additional planets as well as many more smaller planets than in already known planetary systems.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
An artist's impression of the extrasolar planet HD 189733b, seen here with its parent star looming behind--astronomers said its sunset looks similar to a hazy red sunset on Earth. The planet is slightly larger than our own solar System's Jupiter, and its atmosphere is a scorching eight hundred degrees Celsius. Credit: ESA/NASA/Frederic Pont, Geneva University Observatory
Well, how about- Planet Bob?
As Jean-Luc Picard once said, "plenty of letters in the alphabet". ;')
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Free Republica.
Let me guess, Obama, Sasha, Malika (what ever her name is) and Michelle! Wouldn’t that be a swell name for some new plants and moons and space junk!
I propose Planet Zero and send him there.
Dweezil
How about numbering them in order of increasing distance, innermost planet = 1?
Because you may discover Ceti Alpha VI years before finding Ceti Alpha V?
LOL! He does hate Republicans. We should name the exoplanets after the historical list of hurricanes, assigning them in the order of discovery.
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