Naming the Planetary Roads
Syndicated from the August 2023 Astrogator, the monthly newsletter of the Grand Strand Astronomers
In the June 2023 Astrogator, I contributed an article that discussed the software options for creating a digital map of the Moon and Mars. I mentioned a system of planetary addresses based on low slope routes and quadrangles. One additional consideration is the creation of nomenclature guidelines to help inform the names of the newly charted planetary roads. We have a historical precedent in the creation of the first lunar map with named features by Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi in 1651, about 50 years after the invention of the telescope (see below).
Later the International Astronomical Union (IAU) took over that process, and are still today the oversight body for providing approvals to provisional names submitted by the international community of astronomers. The IAU has claimed for itself the authority to name planets, dwarf planets, moons, planetary features, comets, stars, meteor showers, nebulae, galaxies and other objects in our solar system since its inaugural meeting in Rome in 1922. The IAU has created fairly stringent and detailed guidance with respect to what names are acceptable on various planetary bodies. Some examples include names of villages in Italy, historical figures in astronomy and space, fictional characters in film and literature, and living scientists and astronauts. Here is the complete set of astronomical bodies named by the IAU, with detailed descriptions.
In researching how planetary land formations are recorded, I have identified the US Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature and the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). An example of a rule is as follows:
“No names having political, military or religious significance may be used, except for names of political figures prior to the 19th century.”
I did not attempt to create a model for the planetary roads to follow, but I have explored the nomenclature rules by naming 32 roads, including the first five in my white paper. I included the planetary landforms as possible candidate names.
