Oh my Gods and Goddesses!

Naming Planets, Galaxies and Constellations

The Real Deal

Following from the last blog, Science Fiction not only uses mythological names for characters, it also uses them for places in space. But unlike the randomness of the mythological basis for naming characters, there is a firm scientific tradition for naming astronomical bodies after mythological beings. In fact this crossover is likely to cause many sci fi writers a big problem. How come?

Well, we have a limited number of planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, plus Pluto, Eris and Haumea. Notice that in the original planets, before the plutoids were discovered, there was only one female name. Things have improved a lot in this department since the 20th Century.

Then there are the famous asteroids: Ceres, Chiron, Vesta and Pallas. But to be more technically correct there are asteroid groups called: Apollo, Atens, asteroids, Armor, Cybeles, Trojans, Hildas, Thule and the Hungarias. Each group has a large number of numbered asteroids with a few of them named e.g. Chiron is Armor asteroid 2060. Armor 944 is Hidalgo. Trojan 588 is Achilles and other Trojans are named after participants in the Trojan War.

And moons.

The moons of Jupiter are named after the lovers, favourites and daughters of Zeus. In 2009 there were 50 moons.
Neptune’s moons are named after Greek water based mythological creatures. In 2009 there were thirteen moons.
Saturn now (2009) has 53 moons. These were originally named after Greek giants and titans, now they’re named after their descendents. Only Phoebe doesn’t fit this pattern.
Uranus has 27 moons named after magical spirits in English literature including characters from A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Pope’s The Rape of the Lock .
Pluto has three moons, Eris has one. Mercury and Venus have none.
That’s a lot of mythological names being used to describe our solar system. And the naming system isn’t perfect, some names have been doubled up.

The Constellations

As well as describing our solar system, mythological and latin names are used to describe the star patterns we can observe, including the galaxies.
So for constellations we have the zodiac names: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces.

Other constellations include: Andromeda, Aquila, Auriga, Bootes, Canis Major and Minor, Cassiopeia, Centaurus, Cepheus, Cetus, Corona Austrina, Corona Borealis, Corvus, Crater, Cygnus, Delphinus, Draco, Equuleus, Eridanus, Hercules, Hydra, Lepus, Lupus, Lyra, Ophiuchus, Orion, Pegasus, Perseus, Piscis Austrinus, Sagitta, Serpens, Triangulum, Ursa Major and Minor.

And there are more, and there are several different ways of designating stars depending on what field the astronomer is working in. But these constellations are the ones that appear regularly in Sci Fi. Sadly, some writers don’t know any astronomy at all, and use constellation names for planets, not in the Star Trek fashion i.e. Eridani Major is the main planet in the Eridanus constellation or solar system, but as planets in other Galaxies. Look at Andromeda below and there is one such anomaly. The use of asteroid and moon names in our solar system is done much better, indicating that writers are looking at the existing names in our solar system and using them.

Using the names in Science Fiction

The data: There are thirty one references here. Eight planets (include Pluto) in our solar system are generally used in their true form.
Eight references are female indicating the same prejudice to female names exists in this area as well as those I’ve already looked at.

Andromeda Starblazers Galaxy; Space Cowboys Galaxy; Alien Nation Star System; The Boy From Andromeda Star System; Doctor Who: The Ark in Space Planet ; Doctor Who: Mysterious Planet Constellation;
Andromeda Galaxy Andromeda: It Makes a Lovely Light ;
Andromeda Line:The Silver Sun Line in space;

Argos Stargate SGI Brief Candle/ Proving Ground Planet
Ariel Firefly: Ariel Planet.
Callisto B7 Shadow Planet; McCaffrey:The Rowan Moon; Red Dwarf The Last Day Space port ; Jupiter Moon moon; Space Patrol 1960 Moon ;
Cassiopeia Andromeda: Soon the Nearing Vortex Star system
Centauri Prime Babylon Five planet
Ceres Jupiter Moon Asteroid ;Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest System;
Charon McCaffrey: Partnership Planet; J. Haldeman :The Forever War Tenth planet; Weber: In Enemy’s Hands planet;

Daedalus 5 Andromeda: Time Out of Mind Planet
Demeter Earth*Star Voyager Planet.

Ganymede Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers Colony; Babylon 5: By Any Means Necessary/Messages from Earth Mining Planet;
Hephaistos Andromeda: The Broken Places/Under the Night Solar System

Jupiter Babylon 5: Messages from Earth planet; Eye of the Storm Planet; 2010: Odyssey Two Planet; Stargate SG1: Tangent Planet; Bova: Jupiter planet; Deep Space Nine: Dr. Bashir, I Presume? Research Station; Space Patrol 1960 Scientific headquarters on the planet; Enterprise: Fortunate Son/Anomaly Space Port.

Lyra K-Pax Constellation
Marduk Andromeda: Slipfighter the Dogs of War Planet

Mars Planet: Babylon Five: Spider in the Web/A Race Through Dark Places; Bova: Mars/Return to Mars; Burroughs, E. R. Mars series; Doctor Who: The Sun Makers/Pyramids of Mars/The Seeds of Death; Enterprise: Twilight; Mars Attacks; Red Planet; Robinson: Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars; Space Patrol 1960; Total Recall.

Medusa Weber: On Basilisk Station planet; Star Maidens Planet. Medusa Cascade Doctor Who: Last of the Timelords
Mercury Planet : Space Patrol 1960; Sunshine.

Neptune: Space Patrol 1960 Planet.
Oberon Blake 7: Breakdown Planet; New Planet of the Apes: Space station.
Odin: Legend of the Galactic Heroes Planet.

Orion: Planet: Babylon Five: Severed Dreams; Blade Runner; Deep Space Nine: Little Green Men; Eternam; Master of Orion. Constellation or group of planets: Babylon Five: Passing Through Gethsemane; Doctor Who: Turn Left; Enterprise: Borderland. Eye of Orion: Doctor Who: The Five Doctors.

Pallas Space Patrol 1960 asteroid; Space Patrol 1966: Keepers of the Law Planet.
Persephone Firefly: Serenity Planet; Scott: Dreamships Planet.
Pluto: Planet: Doctor Who: The Sun Makers; Space Patrol 1960 Planet;
Saturn: Bova: Saturn; Space Patrol 1960 planet; Marooned Space Station.

Tartarus: Weber: Echoes of Honor Moon; Andromeda: The Knight, Death and the Devil System; Deep Space Nine: Q-Less Planet (Tartarus V).

Uranus Star Cops planet; Space Patrol 1960 planet;
Valhalla: UFO:Ultramaiden Valkyrie Planet.
Venus : Planet: Bova: Venus; Deep Space Nine : Past Tense ; Quantum Leap: Leaping of the Shrew ; Space Patrol 1960; Tom Corbett Space Cadet; Venus Wars; Voyager: Future’s End.
Vulcana Regar Enterprise: Fallen Hero Planet.

This is not a huge list of planet names which means that planets in sci fi are being named in other ways. I’ll have a look at that next time. But in the interim, if you’re writing a si fi script have a look on the Internet for the names of moons in our solar system. You’ll be inspired to use a whole new range of names in your work!