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[TheBiggerFish]

I'm not scoffing. I thought it was hilarious until I realized that, being a pulsar solar system, the whole thing's basically undead, at which point it was just awesome.

Can concur, much awesome.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I have to say, it's a little concerning just how few terrestrial planets were included in this. Another thing to consider is that Super-Earths coincide with Mini-Neptunes, and while we don't know exactly when somewhere not too far above Earth's size becoming a gas giant is inevitable.

Though I know they've found plenty of worlds that are considered likely terrestrial, so they probably just aren't being included in this rather than it being a sign of how likely they are. Still would be nice to get to name some of them, but you could consider it a precaution against accidentally naming a coincidental Earth analog something stupid before we know it's an eventual colony target.

That said, I think the IAU is a little overzealous about their naming schemata, with things such as turning Liberty and Fortitude into their Latin counterparts for no real reason or refusing to name the one Amaterasu because a fairly insignificant asteroid got it first.

[TheBiggerFish]

Wait, the Latinizing was IAU?  I thought it was just the submitted names?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

According to their chart, those two were submitted as English, but the IAU used the Latin counterparts instead because...no reason really given.

[Shadowlord]

And yet they didn't turn "lich" into "undeadus spellcasterus?"

[Descan]

("Orbitar" looks a bit proto-"Planety McPlanetface", doesn't it?  )

It's interesting, because apparently it's a contrived name in reference to NASA's orbital operations. I don't quite get why that ended up being "Orbitar" as opposed to "Orbiter" or "Orbita", but there you have it.

It's spacey. Pulsar, Magnetar, etc. The 'tar' is from "star" I think, so it's technically incorrect (it'd be a better name for the sub-star in a dom/sub binary system, an "orbiting star") but whatever.

[Reelya]

I think they've Latinized the names because English isn't the only language in the world, it's not even the majority language. This avoids having planets called Liberty in seventeen different languages, or a disproportionate number being in English.

Before you scoff, consider that if it was by worldwide fair vote, most names would in Mandarin Chinese, followed by Spanish, then English.

[Descan]

why aren't they named in proto-indo-european then

checkmate, atheists

[MetalSlimeHunt]

That's not really a valid argument when they did allow things in non-Latin languages other than English. If you don't count proper names, zero of these are in English.

[Reelya]

All the non-Latinized ones seem related to mythological beings however.

So, Latinized words or named after gods. You can sure have an English one as long as it's named after the traditional English pantheon. Don't have your own pantheon? Tough shit.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Ah yes, the famous god Copernicus.

[Reelya]

Ok, you got me, add "famous astronomers" to the allowed list. One of whom is English, btw: Harriot.

Latin fits with scientific nomenclature, Gods fits with traditional naming of stars and planets, and Astronomers, well that just fits with the whole "naming stars" thing, doesn't it?

There's no real English bias on display here.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Who said anything about bias? The IAU's standards are just arbitrary and pointless.

We have a lot of celestial bodies to go through, no reason to limit ourselves.

[Starver]

We have a lot of celestial bodies to go through, no reason to limit ourselves.

Fourth question down...

[Sheb]

("Orbitar" looks a bit proto-"Planety McPlanetface", doesn't it?  )

It's interesting, because apparently it's a contrived name in reference to NASA's orbital operations. I don't quite get why that ended up being "Orbitar" as opposed to "Orbiter" or "Orbita", but there you have it.

It's spacey. Pulsar, Magnetar, etc. The 'tar' is from "star" I think, so it's technically incorrect (it'd be a better name for the sub-star in a dom/sub binary system, an "orbiting star") but whatever.

Descan, please keep your dong out of my stars.