3 new planets could host life

[longship]

39. Astronomers usually do not name things.

There are noted exceptions, planets and moons in our solar system, comets are named after their discoverer, asteroids and minor planets are named by their discoverer but only after their orbits have been well defined.

All the rest are usually know solely by their catalog numbers. There are multiple general systems for star names, but except for the few very brightest stars, none of them have names. Instead, they are usually associated with a particular constellation, within a precisely defined boundary in the sky. The catalog name is usually followed by a designation, for instance Gliese 581, is one star in the Gliese catalog. If it has planets around it designated by a lower case letter in order of discovery. Gliese 581a, would be the first, for instance.

Many designations may seem weird, but to an astronomer, they mean something. It's part of the vernacular within that science.

That's why astronomers get pissed off at outright scams like the Star Registry which sell people the right to name a star. No such right exists, and astronomers wouldn't use it even if it did.

In general, there are too damned many stars and will be too damned many extra solar planets to name them. Astronomers have long since realized this. It's about time the general public did.

Remember "Ceti Alpha Five"? Well, Star Trek got the designation wrong, but that's kind of the idea. By one cataloging method "Alpha Ceti" would be the brightest star in the constellation Cetus. In this case, it also happens to have a popular name, Menkar, given it by Arab astronomers long ago. Astronomers just call it Alpha Ceti.