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I know it sounds like a belated April Fools joke, but apparently astronomers announced yesterday that they’ve discovered a real planet 120 trillion miles outside our solar system that very well might be “habitable.” Now, understand that Mars is also classified as habitable and, so far, no one has found life there either. But this new planet, which is called 581 c, has Earth-like temperatures and might have water on the surface, as well.
The folk who discovered it, actually just refer to it as “c,” which by my way of thinking is pretty darn lame. I mean, what if Saturn were called J^8-9 instead? What if Martians were called 4t-ians? What kind of universe would this be? We might not know as much as the average astronomer about stars and such, but we’re certainly more creative, right? Come on flossers! Let’s come up with some better names for the new planet, and make the C-ians feel at home in the universe, shall we?
Comments (27)
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Yeah, what’s up with this scientific number letter thing? Just confuses the average carbon unit here on our planet.How about Bob. I think we should call the new planet Bob.Easy to spell, easy to remember….
posted by Cindy on 4-25-2007 at 7:13 am
I think Ferguson would be a good name. (This is a nod to Mark Twain)
posted by John on 4-25-2007 at 7:18 am
How about New Earth? I volunteer to be on the colonization team!!
posted by Tru on 4-25-2007 at 7:36 am
Cottonia
posted by Cotton on 4-25-2007 at 8:09 am
I hear “Pluto” is back on the name market.
posted by Elizabutt on 4-25-2007 at 8:12 am
C is for Cookie, that’s good enough for me.
Signed,
The Cookie Monster
posted by CropTillDawn on 4-25-2007 at 8:54 am
How about we ask George Lucas? He’s a genius when it comes to making names for planets – Alderaan, Naboo, Tatooine, etc.
posted by Jessie on 4-25-2007 at 9:19 am
How about Arrakis (from the Dune trilogy)?
posted by Stew on 4-25-2007 at 9:45 am
My niece has asked that we consider “Hedgy”, which happens to be the remarkably original name of her beloved hedgehog.
posted by natlynn on 4-25-2007 at 9:51 am
This awakens my pet peeve about our sun and moon not having names of their own. The sun. The moon. Yawn. Every other planet’s moons have cool names, and our sun is not the only sun out there, either. As for this new planet, how about we name it Tina Yothers?
posted by Johnny Cat on 4-25-2007 at 9:51 am
no, no! It’s in a system with a Red sun. It’s described as 50% bigger (more massive) than Earth.
It’s Krypton!
Worse, since we’ve just “discovered Kryptonite” on Earth, it obviously must have exploded 20-odd years ago.
posted by Howie Modell on 4-25-2007 at 10:11 am
Jessie:
If we let Lucas name the planet, we might get a cool name, but we would have to endure a crushing marketing campaign and an endless line of action figures.
Plus, the colonization would be very predictable and one-dimensional.
posted by n2y2 on 4-25-2007 at 10:16 am
I have to say I’m rather fond of Bob, too.
posted by David on 4-25-2007 at 10:16 am
We need more than a name, we need a naming convention. I suggest that we simply modify the name of our home planet slightly. The new discovery could be farth. The next one could be farth-r. After that would be farth-r yet, etc until we reach farth-est.
posted by Tom on 4-25-2007 at 10:27 am
yeah, but n2, think about the McDonald’s giveaways!
posted by David on 4-25-2007 at 10:31 am
Planet Flosson
posted by Jason! on 4-25-2007 at 10:59 am
hmm… Bob is pretty good. Earthlings, meet Boblings. yeah, has a nice ring.
posted by Scarlett on 4-25-2007 at 11:15 am
They should stick with mythology; it’s how most other things in the solar system are named. How about Gaia? It’s the Great Mother in Greek mythology, so that satisfies the eggheads, and it’s got street cred with the kids thanks to Final Fantasy.
posted by Rachel on 4-25-2007 at 11:52 am
Rachel: Gaia is sometimes used as synonymous with Earth by Pagans. Now, whether this is actually a problem is up to debate.
posted by Rosalie on 4-25-2007 at 6:09 pm
We should send a special rocket equipped with several SUV type rovers to explore it. That way we can start the terraforming process to prepare it for colonization when we finally use up the planet we currently live on.
posted by Ernie on 4-25-2007 at 7:45 pm
I say we call it Serenity, in honour of the series that Fox destroyed. If there’s an evil-looking island, we can spread old-wives tales of it being filld with demons and witches, and scare our kids with “If you don’t eat your greens, we’ll send you to Fox Island!”
WooOoOOo, spooky!
posted by Nerdfury on 4-25-2007 at 8:22 pm
Since this planet is said by scientists to be in a ‘Goldilocks Zone’ (not too hot, not too cold, but just right for liquid water and, therefore, potential life as we know it), I suggest it be called Goldilocks.
Any inhabitants would be Goldilocksians. Or bears.
posted by Another Geek on 4-26-2007 at 1:05 pm
Tralfamadore anyone? (I apoligize if I absolutely slayed that spelling, but it seems apprpriate with the recent passing of an American hero).
posted by This guy on 4-26-2007 at 1:36 pm
Gertrude?
Mallory?
Or we could call it New Earth… and build New New York. (Cat people not required.)
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 4-26-2007 at 6:15 pm
It probably won’t be long before astronomical discoveries have corporate sponsors, like the bowl games. The new planet might end up being the Home Depot planet, which orbits the Tostito sun.
posted by Karen on 4-27-2007 at 2:14 pm
i realize that this is a little late (about 3 months late) to comment, but dont you think that if there is life on the planet-intelligent life-they would have their own name. i mean, its a stretch to think there could be intelligent life on it, but its possible
posted by nicole on 6-18-2007 at 5:54 pm
I like Tralfamadore. RIP the last sane man in America.
posted by tim on 8-23-2007 at 7:39 am