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Have you ever wondered why the planets in our solar system are all named after Roman deities, except two of them? One of those exceptions is Earth. The other is Uranus.
Content note: there are mentions of Ancient Greek and Roman deities and their terrible sexual behaviours and violent vengeance. Also category B and C swears.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
I wasn’t kidding, you have to get your planet name approved by the Executive Committee Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN).
Here is the International Astronomical Union or IAU’s guide to celestial nomenclature.
And here’s their 2006 definition of ‘planet’ (still some controversy lingers though!).
Here are some of the approved names for smaller bodies and moons.
I didn’t want to get into the distinction between minor planets, asteroids, space lumps etc, but if you do… minorplanetcenter.net
The IAU recently announced the results of its 2022 NameExoWorlds public submissions contest to name 20 exoplanets.
For more spacelusionist, listen to the Technobabble episode! And Ourania Aphrodite/Aphrodite Urania makes a cameo in Two or More, the episode about the word ‘bisexual’.
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YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
apport, noun: an object produced supposedly by occult means at a seance.
Origin 19th century: from French apport ‘something brought’, from apporter ‘bring to’.
CREDITS:
This episode was written, performed and produced by Helen Zaltzman and Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.