[meteorite-list] What to name Planet X (OT)

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Aug 3 18:15:55 2005
Message-ID: <ba.77298cc1.30229bfb_at_aol.com>

Hola Rob and list,

Planet X was already named Pluto! This has to be at least Planet Y:) After
considerable thought, I've decided to nickname the new planet the "Mushroom
Planet". Likewise, my scientific one word name shall be Basidium, if
Basidium-X isn't politically correct with the hyphen. If others' choose not to
follow, all the better. My mind is made up. The Mushroom Planet was the 10th
planet observed only by a special filter designed by Mr. Bass - and he knew
where to look back in 1954.

A short explanation:
Canadian-born Californian Eleanor Cameron's (1912 - 1996) wonderful
children's adventure novel ""The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet," and its
sequels in the 1950's captured the excitement of the discovery of Pluto as she
herself was a teenager, the sudden focus on space travel in her 40's as she
wrote the books, and the imagination, creativity and enthusiasm of kids from
the 1950's to at least the late 1960's as they secretly beat Sputnik and
Mercury years before JFK was president. Dave - with whom I could so well identify
(and Cameron's only son in reality) - and his friend Chuck, with the help of
an enigmatic astronomer who was a first rate engineer, not to mention their
Uncle's with parts from the junk yard to build the rocket fulfilled dreams of
a generation at the leading edge of the present discovery.
 
By the way Sterling, you have overlooked one little detail. The classes' of
planets nomenclature ought to be after the largest member of their group
(e.g., Terra = Terrestrial Earth is largest; Jupiter = Jovian Jupiter is
largest). So instead of Plutonian we will have the Xenanians...or some other
similar periodic table of the elements sounding name.

As others have pointed out, finding a name for this new Xenanian, or in my
case, Basidomycetes order (fungi) of planets is difficult. Perfect! Fungi
are not plan(e)ts for some and Basidium doesn't have to be a planet, except for
 keyboard-challenged listmembers. I think I'll just go on naming all the
new discoveries after different fungi (mushrooms, puffballs, smuts, rusts and
toadstools) since they like damp, cool places, low-light environments where
people don't usually venture and frequently are ignorant even exist. That sums
it up, I think.

This naming of modern discoveries with ancient or medieval dieties is
getting out of hand IMHO, what's next Tlaloc? Krisna? Jesus? Mohammed? Gautama?
This IS a name game of a political nature of sorts, not childsplay by any
means as some would suggest anything to do with a let's go out and play game.
There is weak scientific classification need, if that. That's mostly why it
hasn't been addressed before - not because the IAU has supplanted popular
language, common sense and Oxford, Noah Webster, and Random House. And we are
seeing game-theory and manuvering at its best by the mostly irrelevant
scientific taxonomic community experts on planets, and others who have decided that a
new planet is or isn't possible because we either do or don't allready know
'em all. As if calling Basidium a planet or not really is a relevant
scientific question with the menagerie we already have out there!

Basidium (Xena, tastes great, less filling, you can call me...) is a planet
if its discoverer wants to call it so (who is more qualified than the guy
that found it). It can be estimated to have about same surface area as Russia
and Canada (the two largest countries), added together - and much, much, much
more than the USA including Alaska. It is thought to be 56% the diameter of
Mercury which means it would have about one third the surface area of Mercury.
 (And a bit over 5% the area of Earth). Mercury itself is 38% the diameter
of Earth, so drawing the line between Mercury and Earth is much more logical
and justified than between Mercury and Basidium...

Saludos, Doug
PS if the discoverer considers Basidium isn't a planet, that is his right,
too, though it would introduce an inconsistency with Pluto and completely pull
the lid off the can of worms.




En un mensaje con fecha 08/03/2005 2:28:35 PM Mexico Daylight Time,
ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com escribe:
Hi All,

How 'bout planet "Bumble", after the term of endearment for the Abominable
Snow Monster from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? ;-) --R

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:53 AM
To: cynapse_at_charter.net; Meteorite Mailing List
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astronomers to Decide What Makes a Planet


Hi, Darren,

Brown wanted Persephone, too. But it's taken, years ago, by a MINOR
planet.

ORCUS, a Greek name for the Afterlife is already taken by another really
big KBO, 2000DW. Eurydice?
Elysium? Minos? Hades? The Underworld names seems too negative for a happy
object. They may all be
taken by the 240,000 minor planets, some of whom are named for members of
this List.

Brown has been searching for years. I'll bet he long ago figured out a
good name for the Whopper
when he found it. We'll see.

Sterling
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Received on Wed 03 Aug 2005 06:15:23 PM PDT