Romulus and Remus (APOD 2005/8/18)

Axel · Post by **Axel** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:04 pm

Don't tell me they're giving names to satellites of asteroids! Yikes!!!

It's bad enough they must find names for the new (and ever more easily discovered) asteroids besides the 12,000 or so already baptized. And while I'm on the topic, I find it strange that with all the classical names apparently used up - so they are scraping the bottom of the barrel with handles like ASCII, GNU, and Albertacentenary - no-one has thought of Narcissus.

I want an asteroid named Narcissus so I can make my fortune writing the great drugstore astrology book: "Narcissus: Your Key to Self-Understanding".

OKozmicBeast · Post by **OKozmicBeast** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 1:33 am

The most interesting aspect of this to me is the fact that the orbits are all coplanar. I wonder how long that took... or were they always coplanar?

Hmmm...

orin stepanek · Post by **orin stepanek** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 1:38 am

Might as well give them names. Othgerwise they would have to be given a number. Who knows; some day Remus may be a hot property for a future prospector!!!???
Orin

Empeda · Post by **Empeda** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:08 pm

I don't think that they're going to be naming all satelites of asteroids - it's just it seemed quite apt in this case as the asteriod was called Sylvia, mythical mother of the founders of Rome - Romulus and Remus, who despite being raised by a she-wolf, did quite a good job of it........