(You knew that would be the second title, didn’t you?)
Chapter 2, where I am empaneled and have lunch.
After I wrote part I of this saga, I waited around outside the room for my panel talk, waiting to see if anyone would show up early. No one did, so I did a quick tour of the lobby, and was greeted with the sight of several hundred people in costume eating breakfast, talking, and generally enjoying themselves. Auspicious!
My panel started right on time. We were ostensibly to discuss how things get named incorrectly in science fiction (Centaurus is a constellation, a large area of the sky, so being called a Centauran makes no sense). We skipped over lots of topics, like what’s a planet, what’s a brown dwarf, what do you call an alien– do you use their language, or yours? What about their planet? What if we someday colonize a planet orbiting HD209458… what then?
It was fun, though a bit of a free-for-all. Afterwards, I went to a panel about what happens if we really do find aliens, which was pretty good. My old friend Seth Shostak was there (astronomer, skeptic, alien-hunter, and host of "Are We Alone", a radio show I have a monthly segment on). I have never heard him in this kind of situation, and he is well-spoken and thoughtful, as well as funny (though his puns are awful, which I already knew). Seth and I had lunch together, and we talked about writing, conventions, and we might have mentioned all the low-cut and high-rise costumes we saw wandering about. That too was fun!
I have a little while here before the panel about podcasting (Seth is on that too) so I’m going to wander the dealer room and see if I want to buy a BatLeth or a book or something. I wish I had my camera!
May 27th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Wrath of Khan
May 27th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
Phil,
If nothing else, get a couple of those one time use cameras.
May 27th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Eh, if the alien race is discovered around a star in Centaurus, then that’s a good enough reason to call them Centaurans. You call people from Japan, Japanese, don’t you, even though their word for themselves is quite different?
May 28th, 2006 at 2:45 am
@NelC
You could do so, but how would you name the species found in the next System just around the corner?
They are also in the same constellation. You could get tousands of species all called Centaurans. I guess they would not be happy to be thrown all in the same basket.
The japanese do at least share the same group of islands…
May 28th, 2006 at 7:42 am
I’ve heard that when our explorers first encountered Polar Eskimos and asked them who they were and what they called themselves, the replied, in their own tongue, ‘People.’
But this gives me a chance to ask something I’ve wondered every time we’ve found another star with planets orbiting it: Should they be called Solar Systems? Isn’t Sol our sun?
May 28th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
I would think that, unless you couldn’t pronounce the name the people have for themselves, that you should use their word. (Incidentally, what do Japanese people call themselves? Isn’t their name for their country “Nippon”?)
Also, when we travel to HD209458, I think it will probably be give a name that’s easier to remember.
May 28th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
What, no pictures? *innocent blink*
Space Cadet said:
That’s fairly standard. Many groups call themselves “the People”.
Do people call them Solar Systems? If so, they are inaccurate, if typical. Those other systems are star systems. Our star system is the Solar System. Then again, any small body orbiting a larger body is called a “moon”. That’s genericization of the “original”, similar to Kleenex being a generic for tissue or xerox being a generic for photocopying or coke being a generic for sodas.
Germans are “German” in “Germany”, either, and their country isn’t “Germany”.
May 29th, 2006 at 2:23 am
“The Wrath of Con” !!
Anyway, you never know how aliens might name moons. Perhaps they have multiple satellites of their home planet, or satellites around the satellites of their home planet, and don’t think in terms of simple “moon” terms. They might demand that the satellites in our own solar system conform to their naming systems!
May 29th, 2006 at 9:46 am
ZorkFox said,…..”Also, when we travel to HD209458, I think it will probably be give a name that’s easier to remember.”
I would say that HD209458 is easier to say or remember than some Earth names or even other names in our Solar System. Consider ‘Bosnia Hercevogina! I’m in no way being critical of their country or the people, but to English ears, it is strange until you have to learn it, say it or type it a few hundred times. And that is better than being referred to by a number, as some people were in recent memory.
Consider the name of a great sportsman. There are many with otherwise strange names, but let them win a few gold medals, their names become household names, and are on everone’s lips.
Ivan.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.”
–From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet and fall in love in Shakespeare’s lyrical tale of “star-cross’d” lovers.
May 29th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Sorry for the typo in the previous post, but it seems that there is one error in my comments recently. Another dropped letter, this one in what should have been, “… and on everyone’s lips.” And I do proof read it, just do not have enough proof I guess.
Ivan.
May 31st, 2006 at 1:29 am
Japan is Nihon or Nippon depending on context in Nihongo – the language we call Japanese.
A Japanese person, in Nihongo is Nihonjin, an American is Amerikajin, an Ausasie, Osotorariyajin etc .. jin being the suffix meaning person /man /nationality.
Japan is derived from ‘Cipangu’ meaning amythical place associatedwith Japan bey theeraly European explores (DaGama, Magellan) etc .. if memory serves.
Learnt Nihongo (Japanese) at uni. some years ago and have forgotten much but was both extremely difficult and extremely satisfying course. I’d recommend learning another language to everyone. Can’t speak much Getrman -just a few words .. However :
German is Deustche (spelling?) … Deustchland.
That language is a bit of a minefield actually .. ‘Guten nacht’ means good night -pronounced one way & “good naked” another! I made this miostake at a german club party and wasn’t toldf about itfor awhile -fortunately they took it the right way. The German word for “mother” is very close in prounciation /mis-prounciation to arather derogatory term for .. well immodest & very liberated woman may be the best way of putting it!
My brother made that mistake to his German girlfriends mother -not good.
May 31st, 2006 at 1:53 am
As for “Centaurans” ‘Babylon 5′ used Centauri – not sure if they were actually from Alpha Centauri but think that might well be the case ..
Strikes me as very odd that we have names for asomany asteroids and moonlets yet no “proper names for different exoplanets…
Agree with those pointing out inaccuracy of using ’solar systems’ for anything but our own one.
‘Extrasolar planetary systems’ is accurate but a mouthful, ‘exoplanetary systems’ seems better and ’stellar systems’ seems the best choice to me -short,accurate and apt. It also applies whether a sytem is composed of stars & planets, stars and stars or stars and brown dwarfs or combos therof giving it versatility if not preciseness.
Names are important to some degree at least, they evoke emotion, conjure up images of place with alot of meaningful conotations – say Rome, London, New York, Istanbul, Palestine, Vietnam, Saturn and well if you’re anything like me you’ll get an instant picture or feel of _place._
Saying ‘Venus’ puts an inamge of a coffee-clouded world, searing hot, poisonous, corrosive, broiling its own dense atmosphere and with a whole string of other ideas attached. Saying HD 1345-9387 or suchlike has far less impact and is easily forgotten, confused or generally ineffective.
A few suggestions – instead of
HD93129A (a supergiant star which has the brightest absolute bolometric magnitude in our Galaxy) we could use Alpha Galaxia
Instead of PSR1257+12 we could coin a name from Anatres (”rival of Mars”) and call the Pulsar sun -the first extrasolarplanetary system we discovered -
“Anthelios (”rival of Helios – our sun)
& be creative and descriptive with naming ideas like that.
I’d also urge making good use of alternative star and constellation names for naming planets eg. Alpha centuri is also called Rigil Kentaurus and Toliman so supposing we have three planets discoveredaround Alpha Cen. wecould name them, Toliman, Rigil & Kentaurus.
A planet located around Altair could be named Shahin or Al-Tarazed from the Arabic names for that constellation .. A planet around Vega could be named Wega (sounds different although only a letter off) from its alternative, older name … and so on.
Lets show some imagination and sense of vision in naming folks, itwon”t killand may well help astronomy &astronomers gianpopularity rather than having “names” which arenothing but numbersand evoke no emotion, no meaning, no sense of anything much at all.
May 31st, 2006 at 2:02 am
Assuming an optimistic human future & perhaps some seriously speculative stardrives, then any human colonists who settle in exoplanetary systems will come up with their own planet names in all liklihood.
Aliens will have their own place (incl. planet) names – if we can pronounce & use them even in approximation it would be the sensible thing to use – if not – we’ll find something appropriate which may or may not be linked to constellations, physical appearances, et cetera..
Sorry if 3 posts in a row is rude or anything – just wished to point that out. Sorry about typo /spacing errors above .. Hope y’all get the gist of whatI’m trying to say.