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Interest: Asteroids
Jul. 29th, 2003 11:11 pmYou all know about asteroids, I hope, though some of you may still be labouring under the misapprehension that the region of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter is a densely-packed and treacherous band of spinning rocks. Now, consider the fact that it is generally acknowledged that the masses of the asteroids in the belt, added together, do not equal that of a single planet. And consider, if you want to think of it, how tiny a slice of our orbit Earth takes up. Make the orbit larger and populate it with less mass. Chances of even seeing an asteroid on a trip through "the belt"? Minuscule, without preplanning.
But when it comes right down to it, I don't really care about asteroids themselves, the little hunks of rock orbiting the sun. What I like is the names.
Each asteroid has a name, which can be assigned by its discoverer. The first ones were named after Greek goddesses, and this established a precedent whereby asteroids were all given feminine names. Except for those that crossed the orbit of Mars, "Earth-grazers" and "Sun-grazers", which were considered special, and the Trojan asteroids that precede and follow Jupiter in its orbit. But anyway, this continued for years, until the names started to become outlandish. People would take ordinary names and stick "-a" or "-ia" on the end.
So finally, somebody(probably the IAU Nomenclature Committee, or an ancestor)decreed that the feminine name thing had to go. The restrictions on naming are now much looser, though there are still some. No rude words, for instance. And no duplications. The discoverer gets to pick the name, though if e forfeits that right there are provisions to find other schemes...and asteroids outside the main belt do still have "themed" names.
What I really want to do is name asteroids. My telescope experience is near-zilch, and from what I gather I'd need some fancy CCD equipment, plus a computer hookup, with the telescope to even have a chance of finding asteroids. It's not impossible that I might do this someday, but it doesn't look that likely for the future.
There are people who have discovered literally hundreds of asteroids, and many of those asteroids remain unnamed. One sequence that I found had names that all seemed to be from species of birds. So obviously these people are lacking inspiration. One of these days I may just put myself forward and say, "Hi! I've got a lot of ideas for asteroid names, if you're running out." For instance, there isn't even an asteroid named "Canada"...last I checked, anyway.
If you're interested in asteroids, you can always check out the IAU Minor Planet Center. The best place to get a list of all the names is the list of Discovery Circumstances. There's also an alphabetical list of names, if you don't need as much information.
Those are just the official pages; I remember running across a page of asteroids named after musicians, and there are probably others. One day I may put up a list of the names I think need to be used, and maybe I'll contact C.J. van Houten(a prolific discoverer)or one of the others. For now it's really just a cool list of names matched with numbers...
But when it comes right down to it, I don't really care about asteroids themselves, the little hunks of rock orbiting the sun. What I like is the names.
Each asteroid has a name, which can be assigned by its discoverer. The first ones were named after Greek goddesses, and this established a precedent whereby asteroids were all given feminine names. Except for those that crossed the orbit of Mars, "Earth-grazers" and "Sun-grazers", which were considered special, and the Trojan asteroids that precede and follow Jupiter in its orbit. But anyway, this continued for years, until the names started to become outlandish. People would take ordinary names and stick "-a" or "-ia" on the end.
So finally, somebody(probably the IAU Nomenclature Committee, or an ancestor)decreed that the feminine name thing had to go. The restrictions on naming are now much looser, though there are still some. No rude words, for instance. And no duplications. The discoverer gets to pick the name, though if e forfeits that right there are provisions to find other schemes...and asteroids outside the main belt do still have "themed" names.
What I really want to do is name asteroids. My telescope experience is near-zilch, and from what I gather I'd need some fancy CCD equipment, plus a computer hookup, with the telescope to even have a chance of finding asteroids. It's not impossible that I might do this someday, but it doesn't look that likely for the future.
There are people who have discovered literally hundreds of asteroids, and many of those asteroids remain unnamed. One sequence that I found had names that all seemed to be from species of birds. So obviously these people are lacking inspiration. One of these days I may just put myself forward and say, "Hi! I've got a lot of ideas for asteroid names, if you're running out." For instance, there isn't even an asteroid named "Canada"...last I checked, anyway.
If you're interested in asteroids, you can always check out the IAU Minor Planet Center. The best place to get a list of all the names is the list of Discovery Circumstances. There's also an alphabetical list of names, if you don't need as much information.
Those are just the official pages; I remember running across a page of asteroids named after musicians, and there are probably others. One day I may put up a list of the names I think need to be used, and maybe I'll contact C.J. van Houten(a prolific discoverer)or one of the others. For now it's really just a cool list of names matched with numbers...
