User:Enric Naval/comet names

People with hyphenated names are distinguished by replacing the hyphen with a space (Singer Brewster, discovered by Singer-Brewster) or asking the discoverer to choose one part of his name (Bally-Clayton, discovered by Bally-Urban and Clayton)


 * previous discussion
 * ongoing discussion

Our Manual of Style says currently that comet names use dashes instead of hyphens.

Comet names are regulated exclusively by the International Astronomical Union's Committee on Small Body, and its decisions can only be appealed to the committee itself. It determines which discoverers appear and in which order, and what typographical characters separate the names. Their 2003 naming guideline says that only hyphens or spaces can be used to separate the names of the discoverers, and hyphenated surnames have the hyphen replaced with a space.

Our Manual of Style claims that comet names are not proper names but compounds of discoverer names. But the IAU cites "Shoemaker-Levy 9" as an example of a proper name, and can only contain letters, hyphens or single spaces.

The International Comet Quarterly explains how the IAU committe decides on the proper names of comets"Sometimes naming is delayed for days or many weeks due to debate over a proper name within the 16-member [as of July 2003] IAU Committee on Small Bodies Nomenclature, which advises the CBAT on comet-naming issues." The proper name is given after the discovery is communicated with "telegram".

Some claimed that comet names have a hyphen because they were reported by telegram, but were to announce the discovery not the name, and they have always been coded and illegible IAU's history of telegrams request that people send coded telegrams. From 1882 to 1919 discoveries were announced in weekly journal Astronomische Nachrichten and coded telegrams were sent only to make announcements more quickly. From 1989 to 1914 the circulars were hand-written, with the coded telegram at the bottom. Since 1914 the official announcements are the official circular, printed in paper with dashes, diacritics, and scientific symbols 1914 1920. The IAU itself warns that e-mails are not official because they lack these symbols: "Note that the printed IAUCs are considered "official" and final; the e-mailed versions are officially issued but are not the final version, because they are issued in ASCII form (and do not entail diacritical marks, Greek letters, and other aspects). Official citing should always be to the printed IAUCs, not the electronic versions"

The IAU has the power to refuse the inclusion of a discoverers name, for example "Note that alternate names have only been included for comets that were rediscovered (and thus had their name changed) after 1950."

NASA: Small body node says "Proper name ("Shoemaker-Levy 9", "Halley", "Encke", ...) An ASCII string of letters which may also include hyphens and single quotes." Designations can be searched with dashes, which means that this is not a software limitation.


 * ""Proper names are primarily assigned to objects in the Solar System. Two IAU bodies are responsible for collecting, assigning, and disseminating names according to agreed principles. Names of major planets and satellites as well as surface features on all solar-system bodies are the responsibility of the IAU Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature, while names of comets and minor planets are assigned by the Committee on Small Body Nomenclature. Final approval of these names is given by the General Assemblies. Links are provided from the IAU web page to the data bases of approved names maintained by each of them.""

"Rare cases of multiple discoveries were denoted with hyphens, e.g., '1886 IX (Barnard-Hartwig)'." "New Designations For Old". B. G. Marsden (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) January 1995 International Comet Quarterly.

The hyphenation of comet names is explicitly mentioned in and a 2000 astronomy book. "Doubly hyphenated" comet names are discussed in a 1941 Popular Mechanics article and in a 1939 newspaper article after the discovery of Comet Kaho-Kozik-Lis. A divulgative page in NASA asks why the comet in Deep Impact (film) received a hyphenated name. The hyphenization of Shoemaker-Levi 9 was commented in the sci.astro usenet group.

Phil Plait's Bad astronomy column on Slate.com: "Finally, in parentheses, there’s the last name of the discoverer (up to three can be listed, separated by hyphens). " What’s In a Comet Name?

Shoemaker-Levi 9 is spelled with a hyphen in Merriam-Webster and Britannica and Collins.

Popular Mechanics 1941 "So keen is the competition that sometimes three telegrams arrive on the same night, in which case, the comet may receive a doubly hyphenated name, such as Comet Kaho-Kozic-Lis, discovered by three individuals independently on July 17, 1936" and in a 1939 newspaper article

Also for Hale-Bopp, a course at a university "(...) so, following convention, the comet became their hyphenated namesake." Science course, NY TImes "Hale-Bopp (I like the classy Home Counties hyphen) (...)". astronomy website "In the instance that more than one person is responsible for a comet’s discovery, the names are hyphenated. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Comet Hale-Bopp are well known examples.", Frosty Drew Observatory "Sometimes two people report a comet at almost the same time in which case a hyphenated name is used." 

Astronomy books "Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered by two astronomers on the same night, which explains the hyphenated name. "name the comet after each of the discoverers (with the individual names separated by hyphens)" "Independent discoveries of the same comet sometimes resulted in several names linked by hyphens, as in Swift-Tuttle." newsletter of Kingston centre of Royal Astronomical Society of Canada "Before long it [Swift-Tuttle] bore the hyphenated name"  "Therefore, many of the discovered comets bear such amateurs' names as West, Austin, Levy, and Ikeya-Seki (hyphenated names mean that there was more than one discoverer)." "A new comet is given the name of its discoverer. If a new comet is discovered simultaneously by two or more observers, it receives a multiple, hyphenated name, like the tongue-twisting Whipple-Fedtke-Tevzadve, the staccato Tago-Sato-Kosaka, or the more melifluous Swassmann-Wachmann."

"How are comets named? A comet is usually given the name of the individual who discovered it. Sometimes a comet is given two names, separated by a hyphen, as the Pons-Winnecke comet. This indicates that one of the men discovered it. (...) could also mean that the two men, working as a team, discovered the comet, as in the case of the Arend-Roland comet" One thousand one questions answered about astronomy, 1958

a book by Alec Guinness "Hale-Bopp (I like the classy Home Counties hyphen) (...)"

Brian A. Skiff, famous for discovering many comets, "Then there are the hyphenated ones where I'm given top billing or where I'm the junior partner, (...) There are in addition several 'LONEOS' comets (some of them hyphenated as well) (...) Some (but not all) of these hyphenated comets with the survey name given rather than the observer (...)"

A website by two astrophysicists and one science journalist from Astronomy journal "[Hale and Bopp's] discovery gave the comet its catchy hyphenated name." 

In a mailing list for asteroid and comet researchers "I could, for example, illustrate beautifully why hyphenated comet names are a bad idea. (...) doesn't necessarily mean that others would agree with the notion that hyphenated comet names are a bad idea." "There is just one object that violates the 16-character maximum: the comet/asteroid 4015 Wilson-Harrington. This could have been avoided by disregarding the hyphen: WilsonHarrington."

Universe Today blog "In the instance that more than one person is responsible for a comet’s discovery, the names are hyphenated. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Comet Hale-Bopp are well known examples." 

NASA educative page "WHY did [the comet in the Deep Impact movie] receive this hyphenated name?" 

website by a research physicist in the field of space physics "Simultaneous reports are possible, in which case the surnames are hyphenated: Comet Shoemaker-Levy, for example. "

Northern Virginia Astronomy Club "Astronomer Alan Hale of New Mexico simultaneously discovered the same comet, and the rest is hyphenated history."

"Ocassionally a second discoverer is also honored, and the name hyphenated." "The orbits of the comets of short period", Popular Astronomy, 1926. Written by astronomer William Henry Pickering, as you can see in a 1920

"Their discovery [Hale's and Bopp's] gave the comet its catchy hyphenated name."One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos. Rose Center for Earth and Space / American Museum of Natural History

"Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered by two astronomers on the same night, which explains the hyphenated name."The Handy Astronomy Answer Book, by a professor of astrophysics

During the nineteenth century, there was no formal arrangement for the naming of new comets, with the notable exception of "... short-period comets that had been observed at more than one perihelion passage." (Marsden, n.d.). However, other comets often were traditionally associated with the names of their discoverers. It was only in 1925 that the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams began assigning formal names to new comets and publicizing these via the IAU Circulars (ibid.). This soon produced the first hyphenated comet name, to indicate more than one independent discoverer, and in 1930 the first three-name comet was identified. In 1939, the Bureau introduced the current 'trinomial nomenclature', which recognizes the names of up to three independent discoverers of a comet, listed in discovery-order. (this is an entire paragraph from the source)

Also found in Google books, volumes 6-7, Astral Press, 1995, p. 116

And famous institutions explicitly mention the hyphen in divulgative texts:

"Comet nomenclature. (...) If there are two or more independent discoverers, each name is ascribed, but separated by a hyphen, e.g. Harrington-Abell." British Interplanetary Society

"When more than one person reports a new comet at the same time it gets a hyphenated, and sometimes sort of funny-sounding name: Comet Mitchell-Jones-Gerber, Comet Ikeya-Seki, and Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann, for example."Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum, 1985

"On March 8, 1858, F. A. T. Winnecke at Bonn, discovered a comet which Encke found to be identical with that of Pons' 1819 discovery, hence the hyphenated title ." The Review of popular astronomy - Volúmenes 19-21, 1925

"In some cases the names of more than one discoverer are given, separated by a hyphen." World longitude operation of 1926: Results of observations at San Diego and Washington. United States Naval Observatory. 1926

Because we must have an accurate orbit to apply this last designation, no false comets in modern times carry it. On occasion, however, a comet will be discovered on several old photographic plates, from which an orbit is computed. It will then be given the next unused Roman numeral for the year in which it reached perihelion, even if it was closer to the Sun very early in that year.

Comets are also designated with proper names, usually the name of the discoverer. Here, we'll examine the normal situation as well as the exceptions to the rules.

As an example, if Joe Smith visually discovers a new comet, upon confirmation it is known as "Comet Smith." Smith often has no say in what he wants to name it; his name has to be used. This prevents the "selling" of comets by the discoverers. An exception is made if the discoverer has undergone a name change, yet had discovered comets under the previous name. Then, the discoverer chooses between his or her former or later name. (...)

If, for example, Fred Jones discovers and promptly reports this hypothetical comet, then it is known as "Comet Smith-Jones." This is true only if Jones independently finds the comet. If Smith tells Jones where to look and Jones then observes it, this is not really an independent discovery. Otherwise, up to three names can be applied to a comet, each separated by a hyphen (-).

(...) Until a few decades ago, slow communications allowed a new comet to remain unconfirmed and "co-discoverable" for several days or even weeks.

Of the 44 comets found visually since January, 1975, 35 have one name attached, three have two names, and six have three names. The number of independent discoveries of each comet provides one indicaation of the world-wide comet-hunting activity. Most of the multiple-name comets are found in the morning sky and are brighter than the average comet. Four of the six triple-name comets [in 1989] consist of three Japanese names. (...)

When a periodic comet, whose orbit is well-known, is recovered, the recoverer's name is not attached to the comet. On the other hand, if a previously lost periodic comet is accidentally "discovered" by someone who was unaware of their existence, their name is not attached to the comet. On the other hand, if a previously lost periodic comet is accidentally "discovered" by someon who was unaware of its existence, their name is added to that of the old name, separated by a hyphen. In 1978, for example, fujikawa of Japan discovered a comet. It was known as "Comet Fujikawa" until the newly computed orbital elements showed that it was Comet Denning, originally found in 1881 and lost for 11 revolutions. It is now called 'Comet Denning-Fujikawa'."

Here are some exceptions to the "rules" on naming comets: If Smith discovers a comet that proves to be periodic (with an orbital period under 200 years), it is known as "Periodic Comet Smith." If he discovers another periodic comet, then his first comet becomes "Periodic Comet Smith 1" and his second comet becomes "Periodic Comet Smith 2."

If a husband-and-wife team discovers a comet, are both og their last names used? No, they are not. As an example, when Eugene and Carolyne Shoemaker find a comet, it is simply named "Comet Shoemaker," not "Comet Shoemaker-Shoemaker." (Noter that two of the Shoemaker comets are credited to Carolyn alone.)

A hyphen (-) is used in a comet's name only to separate the discoverers. Thus, when sometimes the discover has a double name, the hyphen is dropped from the comet's name in order to show that there was only one discoverer. For example, in 1986 Stephen Singer-Brewster discovered a comet. It is known as as "Comet Singer Brewster." Somewhat similarly, in 1926 Josep Comas Solá [sic] found a short-period comet, now known as "Periodic Comet Comas Solá". In 1968, John Bally-Urban and patrick Clayton jointly found a comet, Bally-Urban dropped the last part of his name, so the comet is known as "Comet Bally-Clayton ."

George van Biesbroeck's comets are each called "Comet van Biesbroeck." Similar treatment is given to comets found by Robert van Arsdale, H. van Gent, and C. van Houton. Sidney van den Bergh's comet is known as "Comet van den Bergh."

Each of D. du Toit's comets are named "Comet du Toit," with similar usage for the comets found by R. de Kock and Francesco de Vico. The famous periodic comet found d'Arrest is called "Periodic Comet d'Arrest."

Four comets are named after persons, but not their discoverers. These are named after those who first calculated their orbits. (Note: Comet Encke, Comet Halley, Comet Lexell and Comet Cromellin) (...)

There are some famous comets that are not named after people at all: Fifteen comets are simply named as "Great Comet" [often with the year added, Ed.] (...) Some "Great" comets are named after months, sich as "Great March Comet" (1843) (...) (Note: the author provides other examples, like comets named after observatories and others).

Go to http://adsabs.harvard.edu/journals_service.html, pick "Journal of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers", volume "33", page "26". The list of abstracts misses many articles, you will have to look at the page thumbnails. Author is an amateur astronomer, according to our article he is "the most successful living visual comet hunter in the United States, being credited with the discovery of 11 comets."

"On 3 May 1986 saw the American Stephen Singer-Brewster the comet P / Singer Brewster. (The name is spelled without a hyphen, since it is one and not two discoverers)" Original in German: "Am 3. Mai 1986 entdeckte der Amerikaner Stephen Singer-Brewster den Kometen P/Singer Brewster. ( Der Name wird ohne Bindestrich geschrieben, da es ein und nicht zwei Entdecker sind)" unknown title Sterne und Weltraum, Volume 31, Verlag Bibliographisches Institut, 1992. According to de:Sterne und Weltraum, this is "the most important German-language magazine for astronomy"

Also Comet Bally-Clayton. The removal of part of a hyphenated surname is also mentioned here, although not explicitly: "The comet's official name will be Bally-Clayton comet. (...) Bally-Urban and Clayton are attending (...) New Comet Discovered By Amateurs The News and Courier, Aug 26, 1989, p. 9)

"At this point it seemed that the comet could be officially named Bally-Clayton (we had agreed to use this name rather than Bally-Urban-Clayton, lest it be thought that three persons were involved in the discovery) and designated 1968d (...)" Leaflets / Astronomical Society of the Pacific, issues 451-510. 1972

"[page 341] (...) although there remains the age-old custom of naming comets after their discoverers. For practical reasons the number of names assigned to the comet is never more than three, and it is the responsability of the Central Bureau to make the final selection. Names are not usually added more than an hour or so after the discovery telegram has been distributed." "The comet's official name will be Bally-Clayton comet." Title: The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams Authors: Marsden, B. G. Journal: Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets, Vol. 10, No. 493, p. 337-344 (1967) Bibliographic Code: 1970ASPL...10..337M

"It sometimes happens, as in the case with Comet Hale-Bopp, that a comet is discovered simultaneously by different individuals. In such cases, it has been customary to name the comet after each of the discoverers (with the individual names separated by hyphens), up to a maximum number of three names. One can understand the reasoning behind this three- name limit by (...) " Everybody's comet: a layman's guide to Comet Hale-Bopp. 1996 p. 17 Alan Hale (astronomer)

"The Discovery of Comets. If several observers discover the comet at about the same time, then the names of the first three discoverers are given to the comet, each separated by a hyphen (-). Since 1995, however, the CBAT has been attempting to limit the number of " An observer's guide to comet Hale-Bopp: making the most of Comet Hale-Bopp : when and where to observe Comet Hale-Bopp and what to look for. 1996. p. 2 comet hunter Donald Machholz

"Independent discoveries of the same comet sometimes resulted in several names linked by hyphens, as in Swift-Tuttle." Comet of the century: from Halley to Hale-Bopp. Fred Schaaf. 1997. p. 117

"Although their names [Shoemaker Levy] are now forever linked as the hyphenated co-discoverers of one of the 20th century's largest comets, neither knows who saw Comet [Shoemaker-Levy 9]" Amateurs astronomers' success is heaven-sent The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. February 2, 1997

Names were already hyphenated before the 2003 change in rules, back when the official IAU designations were names like "1995b":

"Therefore, many of the discovered comets bear such amateurs' names as West, Austin, Levy, and Ikeya-Seki (hyphenated names mean that there was more than one discoverer)." Astronomy Made Simple]. Doubleday. 1993

"If a new comet is discovered simultaneously by two or more observers, it receives a multiple, hyphenated name, like the tongue-twisting Whipple-Fedtke-Tevzadze, the staccato Tago-Sato-Kosaka, or the more melifluous Swassmann-Wachmann." Comet Fever Simon & Schuster, 1985. p. 45.

"(...) in a discovery, their names are hyphenated; this explains Schwassmann-Wachmann, Grigg-Mellish, Giacobini- Zinner, Arend-Roland, Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák, and many others. (...)" Comets. Patrick Moore, 1976

Finally, if the comet is a new discovery it takes the discoverer's name. If it is a comet that had been discovered many years previously but subsequently lost, or if two or more people discover the same comet, then hyphenated names are used in (...) Splendor in the Sky. astronomer Gerald Hawkins. 1961 (from google preview) p. 236

"A hyphenated name given to a comet may mean that the comet was discovered by a partnership of observers, as in the case of the Arend-Roland Comet of 1957. The hyphen may also mean that the original discoverer and the observer who first saw the comet on its first return have both been given credit. Officially a new comet is given a designation that is made (...)" (this was written before the IAU established official names for comets) 1961 "Captives of the Sun" astronomer James Sayre Pickering. pp. 253-254. Also archive.org copy is a 1961 reprint of a 1920 book

"Now there are six Metcalf comets (one hyphenated with the European)" probably a reference to 23P/Brorsen–Metcalf. Popular astronomy, Volume 47. 1939

"Full name of tho comet is now Jurlof-Achnmrof-Smlth-lIassel, but to avoid this hyphenated terminology astronomers are going back to their standardized forms and calling the comet 1939 d." New Comet Picks Up Names Along Route .Letters Show Hassel Find Was Discovered by Others Earlier. Lewiston Evening Journal. Jun 30, 1939

"The comet Is not visible to the naked eye and is of Interest to astronomers only Its hyphenated name is due to the fact that two men discovered this comet almost [simultaneously]" New Comet Unseen With 'Naked Eye'? Christian Science Monitor. Sep 3, 1932

Up to the early 1990s the IAU allowed as many as three independent discoverers to be recognized. Among other things, this produced some rather cumbersome comet names, at least for Western tongues. Possible the most long-winded name in recent history is Comet Nishiakwa-Takamizawa-Tago, an object independently discovered by four Japanese astronomers in 1987, of whom the first three were recognized. (Shigeo Mitsuma missed being acknowledged as a discoverer by just four minutes--probably just as well, since that would have given us "Comet Nishiwaka-Takamizawa-Tago-Mitsuma"!) Decade earlier, one comet wound up with four names when, between 1818 and 1928, four astronomers discovered the same object at different times. Fortunately, Comet Pons-Coggia-Winnecke-Forbes was later renamed Comet Crommelin, after the astronomer, Andrew Crommelin, who analyzed its orbit and proved that the three comets discovered in 1818, 1872, and 1928 were one and the same body, which has a period of 27 years. Since the early 1990s, though, no matter how many people discover a comet more or less simultaneously, only two names are accepted by the IAU. This rule has led to some hard luck stories when, under the old regulations, a third person's name would have been included. The beautiful Comet Ikeya-Zhang, seen in March and April 2002, would have been named Ikeya-Zhang-raymundo, the last for the Brazilian astronomer who, unaware that the comet had already been reported, discovered it some twelve hours later. Although Paolo Raymondo was accepted as an independent discoverer, the comet does not bear his name. An earlier, rather distinctive, test case was the series of comets discovered in the early 1990s by the husband-and-wife team of Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker, who often worked in collaboration with David Levy, an amateur astronomer turned professional. In this instance common sense prevailed, and rather than being called "Shoemaker-Shoemaker-Levy," the comets were simply known as "Shoemaker-Levy."

"IAU Comet-Naming Guidelines (...) (2) each individual name is to be separated by a hyphen (but family surnames with two or more words separated by either spaces or hyphens are to be distinguished in comet names by single spaces only between each surname word -- although, for simplicity, the discoverer shall in such cases also be given the option to choose one main word from his or her name to represent the surname on the comet, with such choosing strongly encouraged), (3) there is to be no more than one name on that comet from a single (...) and the established team/program name will generally be used for the comet name unless Guideline 3.4(a)(2), below, ... [http://books.google.es/books?ei=gXWuUInQHMm2hAeql4HACw&hl=es&id=RxjyAAAAMAAJ&dq=The+International+comet+quarterly%2C+Volume+28&q=hyphens#search_anchor The International comet quarterly, Volume 28. Appalachian State University. Physics Dept, Appalachian State University. Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. 2006]



"The third designation category simply employs the name of the person, or persons, who actually discovered the comet, for example, Seki or Arend-Roland. ln the latter case the pre-hyphen name is the person who discovered the comet (Arend) and the post-hyphen name honours the person who first observed it" The Larousse guide to astronomy, Larousse 1978, p. 215, doctor in astrophysics David Baker

If a comet is discovered by someone with a hyphenated surname, the IAU replaces the hyphen with a space, for example 105P/Singer Brewster. It also modifies other surnames: Comas i Solà discovered 1655 Comas Sola and Shajn-Comas Sola (with Shajn).

PANSTARRS was discovered by Pan-STARRS.

(quoting the IAU rules) "The names appear in chronological order and are separated by a hyphen."

Wikipedia uses Pan-STARRS to refer to the project, but PANSTARRS to refer to the comet, and this is probably the most correct. Do a search for "panstarrs" on NASA's webpage, and you find three different spellings in the first five hits: the two above plus "PanSTARRS" without the hyphen. I've even seen it spelled "PanSTARRs," which is obviously wrong.

The problem with a hyphen in "Pan-STARRS" is that hyphens are used in comet names very specifically to indicate that a comet has two discoverers. For example, Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) was named thus to indicate its co-discovery by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.Comet Pan-STARRS or PANSTARRS: What's In a Celestial Name? Space.com, by Geoff Gaherty, Starry Night Education, 11 March 2013.


 * search google books

Minor planet names
minor planet naming

And the usage of hyphens was formally decided in a 1982-1983 reunion of the IAU: "Names [of minor planets] shall be limited to a maximum length of sixteen characters, including spaces and hyphens." Transactions of the International Astronomical Union, part 2, page 183

9491 Thooft, discovered by 't Hooft. The IAU removed the apostrophe and the space, and changed the capitalization of "t" and "H" (the "'t" in Dutch surnames should never be capitalized). Minor Planet Circular 39652