(Blog)

For those of you living under rocks, astronomers have discovered a tenth planet, much farther out than Pluto, and now it’s time to start thinking of a name!

New Scientist just published a list of some of their favorite proposed names, some serious, some humorous. I think it would be logical to continue the Greek mythological scheme used on most of the other planets in our solar system, but then again, being the tenth planet, something pertaining to the number 10 could also be in order.

Persephone makes a lot of sense, since in Greek mythology Persephone was kidnapped by Pluto, and this planet is nearest to Pluto. In fact, in Douglas Adams’ book Mostly Harmless, the tenth planet is called Persephone (and nicknamed Rupert). Scientists being the sci-fi nerds that they are, this makes Persephone that much more an attractive name. In either case, we should immediately begin calling the planet Rupert.

Out of the New Scientist list, Nibiru, a name Babylonians gave to some planet or other at the time, sounds cool in a sci-fi way, but I don’t know about Babylon and don’t care about it either. Planet X works in an equally sci-fi manner. Dekatos, Decimus, Deca, forget those. Planet X is definitely my name of choice.