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There Are Strict Rules for Naming New Stuff in Space; Here's Why by Washington Post, Adapted by Newsela Staff on 03.13.19 Word Count 1,084 Level 1220L

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There Are Strict Rules for Naming New Stuff in Space; Here's Why by Washington Post, Adapted by Newsela Staff on 03.13.19 Word Count 1,084 Level 1220L There are strict rules for naming new stuff in space; here's why By Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff on 03.13.19 Word Count 1,084 Level 1220L Image 1. This still image and set of animations show NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft exploring a new region. Photo by: NASA/JPL-Caltech Take heed, aspiring lunar explorers. Any newly discovered ridges on the moon must be named for a geoscientist. If you want to name a landform on Saturn's moon Titan, you'd better be a fantasy or science fiction fan. Mountains and plains on the lake-covered moon are styled after places in J.R. R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" series and Frank Herbert's "Dune" series. Almost everything on Io, a moon of Jupiter, must have a name associated with fire, volcanoes or Dante's "Inferno." So says the International Astronomical Union, the authority on planetary and satellite names since 1919. As more powerful telescopes and new missions add to the identified real estate of the solar system, the IAU's brilliant and sometimes nerdy naming guidelines help bring order. The IAU's rules are in the news this month after the Carnegie Institution for Science announced it needed help naming several moons of Jupiter discovered last year. Carnegie astronomer Scott Sheppard, who spotted the new moons using a giant telescope in Chile, said suggestions should be This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. made on Twitter. They can be tweeted to the handle @JupiterLunacy using the hashtag #NameJupitersMoons. However, Sheppard is limited to names that meet a few key criteria. Names Tied To Political Activities Are Off Limits A name must come from a character in Greek or Roman mythology who was a descendant or lover of the god known as Zeus in Greek, or Jupiter in Latin. It must be 16 characters or fewer, preferably one word. The name can't be offensive, too commercial, or closely tied to any political, military or religious activities of the past 100 years. It can't belong to a living person and can't be too similar to the names of existing moons or asteroids. If the moon is prograde, meaning it circles in the same direction as its planet rotates, the name must end in an "a." If it is retrograde, circling in the opposite direction, the name must end in an "e." "Jupiter is one of the more restrictive ones," Sheppard said. There is a limit to the number of mythological characters who meet the IAU criteria. "The 'ends in e' scenario is actually running out of names," he said. There Were Many Names For One Rocky Body Gareth Williams, an astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who serves on IAU groups, said that these guidelines are necessary to avoid confusion. Before the union came along in the early 20th century, the solar system was a mess. Disputes occasionally broke out over the names of new planets. Uranus was nearly called "George's star" after England's King George III awarded money and a plush home in Windsor Castle to the planet's discoverer, William Herschel. Improvements to telescopes made it possible to identify the inhabitants of the asteroid belt and resulted in scores of new rocky bodies being discovered every year. However, few researchers took the time to cross-check whether their supposed "discovery" had been seen before. Maps of Mars and the moon were similarly full of conflicts. A given crater or dome could have three different names, and a name might describe two different objects. The Official Lunar List Makes Its Debut It wasn't until 1913 that anyone published a definite list of every known feature on the moon, which was the solar system's most-studied object then. Work by Mary Adela Blagg, an English astronomer who tracked each discovery and mismatched name, led to the creation of the IAU's first formal list of lunar landmarks in 1935. With the arrival of the Space Age, "people were making new discoveries by the bucketload," Williams said. The IAU established a Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) to oversee the naming process. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. The spacecraft team of a mission typically proposes categories and themes for naming landforms, said Rita Schulz, chairwoman of the WGPSN. When It Comes To Naming, Themes Are Important After NASA's New Horizons probe flew past Pluto in 2015, scientists on the team and at the IAU devised a naming scheme focused on stories of the underworld and voyages of discovery. As a result, we have the Tenzing Montes on Pluto, which are ice mountains named for Nepalese mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, and a macula, or dark spot, on the moon Charon called "Mordor." Space is full of "Lord of the Rings" references. Once themes are decided, suggestions are reviewed and, once approved, are published in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Among the most recent additions are Hippocamp, a tiny moon of Neptune discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope, and Statio Tainhe, the landing site where the Chinese spacecraft Chang'e 4 touched down on the far side of the moon, a first. "Hippocampi" are the sea monsters that drove Neptune's chariot in ancient myth. "Tianhe" comes from the ancient Chinese name for the Milky Way. Having themes "minimizes the chance that someone will want to give the same name to two different features on two different bodies because the themes will be different," Williams said. As secretary for the Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature, Williams said he has sought to broaden the themes for asteroids and other small objects. He is proud of asteroids named for popular musicians, such as Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday and David Bowie. The Beatles And Monty Python Have Their Own Space Rocks Minor planets include any body in orbit around the sun that is not a planet or comet. With a few exceptions, most new asteroids can have any name that is not offensive or commercial or political. These space rocks carry the names of mathematicians, chemists, engineers, high school teachers, the members of the Beatles and the British comedy group Monty Python, runner Jesse Owens, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and activist Malala Yousafzai. However, even the minor planet community has its limits. In the 1980s, when astronomer James Gibson gave a newly discovered asteroid the name of his cat, Mr. Spock, some people "felt that was inappropriate," Williams said. "So now that is strongly discouraged." Yet the IAU does not change names once they are chosen. The asteroid 2309 Mr. Spock still circles the sun. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com..
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