referencebooks (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} referencebooks) wrote,@ 2005-10-25 15:08:00 |
|
| Entry tags: | astronomy, language |
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Fifth Edition
By Lutz D. Schmadel.
Published by Springer Verlag, 2003.
This is an 8" by 10" hardbound book running to 992 pages including appendices, references, and an index of minor planet names, plus two prefaces and two forewords.
The book is primarily a catalog of the names of all of the "minor planets" (commonly known as asteroids and suchlike) found and given names by 2002 - 10,038 in all, out of a total of 52224 planets actually discovered and numbered. In this catalog the planets (or minor planets or planetoids) are listed not in alphabetic order but in the order of their official ordinal number designation, which is a practice that goes far back into the history of modern astronomy. (Actually, it was in 1852 with the discovery of planet Melpomene that astronomers first gave up on assigning each celestial object a special symbol and started using ordinal numbers for them.) For each minor planet included, its number and name is given, along with the reason for its name, the details of its discovery (name of discoverer(s), location and date), and a code referring to the source of information on the name.
There are eleven appendices in the book:
- Discoverers in Alphabetical Order
- Discoverers Ranking List
- Corporate Discoverers
- Discovery Places in Alphabetical Order
- Discovery Places Ranking List
- Categories of Minor Planet Names
- Names Classification by Countries
- Nobel Laureates
- IAU Officers
- Special Type Numbered Minor Planets
- Minor Planet Names with Unknown Meaning
An interesting thing about the book is how much it says about the namesakes of each named planet. Most of the names are for scientists, but there are planets named after many other people and things. Here is the full entry for planet Triathlon:
(10346) Triathlon
1992 GA1. Discovered 1992 Apr. 2 by C. S. Shoemaker and D. H. Levy at Palomar.
Since Pam Truty founded the Burn Lake Triathlon in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1984, the relay team of Wendee Wallach-Levy {see planet (6485)}, Laura Wright and Barbara Pardo has (sic) won medals every year, including 14 golds. Laura has also done more than 30 years volunteer work for the American Red Cross.
(M 36949)
This is quite an interesting book. What's missing, unless I don't know how to see it, is information that would tell an astronomer where in the sky one of these planets could be found with a powerful enough telescope, or what its orbit is. That information must be in another source.
