Not always! Jupiter is a two-faced planet.

Sometimes friend. Sometimes foe.

spaceaustralia.com/feature/jupi... by @jontihorner.bsky.social

And it couldn’t come at a more appropriate time with ‘Pluto Demoted Day’ just around the corner.

Is Pluto a planet? Nope for me 🫣 but I just like stirring shit up so what would I know.

However, @jontihorner.bsky.social has some words about it here: www.spaceaustralia.com/opinions/cel... 🔭🧪

That's all good - but when you're giving a one hour talk about it I bet you don't use the full name every single time :P If not, your one hour talk only contains 45 minutes of content and 15 minutes of 'PSR J2051 +0827' :)

Lich is a great case of naming competitions going right. The pulsar is Lich, and its planets are Draugh, Phoebetor and Poltergeist (hopefully I've got the spelling right) - all forms of the undead from around the world :)

The thing is, human-based names are memorable :) And roll off the tongue so much easier... much easier to say 'Comet Pons-Brooks' than 'Pulsar PSR B1257 +12'. I've had to talk about that one in my talks, and it really doesn't roll off the tongue. 'Lich' is much better - though most don't use it yet!

But you only really use those designations to introduce the comet :) So something like

'Rami, let me introduce you to comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. Pons-Brooks is a Halley-type comet, and is very pleased to meet you' :)

Then there's the rarer ones

X/ -- this is a comet that was observed long ago, and we don't have enough data to calculate an orbit

D/ -- this, like Monty Python's parrot, is an ex-comet. It is deceased. It has ceased to be. Or it is lost...

I/ -- this is an Interstellar comet

So for comets, you have the following

C/ -- this is a 'standard' comet - i.e. one we believe we have never seen pass through the Solar system before. This would be the comet equivalent of 'Mr', I guess...

P/ -- this is a periodic comet - one we are certain has been seen at multiple apparitions

Comet names are really easy - it's just the first bit which is the equivalent of a human title - just used for context. E.g.

Professor Bloggs
Admiral Lemonface
Royal Bodyguard Carl

You only use the first bit once to give context. Then thereafter you just use the name :)

So much better than pulsar names :p

Comet names make perfect sense! Named after their discoverers except for the few named for the mathematicians who worked out the orbit ;) comet nicknames however are doing my head in. I’m totally over the whole ‘devil comet’ thing…

Thanks for the tip! I’ll make sure to do that in future!

I think I have but I’m pretty much a newbie here so figuring it out slowly with very limited cognitive space right now! I’ll get there though :)