The new names met considerable protest from some quarters. Under the new process, Jupiter V continued as Amalthea, Jupiter XIII was named Leda in accordance with a suggestion of Kowal's, and all previous proposals for the seven satellites VI-XII were abandoned in favor of new names, in accordance with a scheme suggested by the German philologist Jürgen Blunck where prograde moons received names ending in 'a' and retrograde moons received names ending in 'e'. In 1975, following Charles Kowal's discovery of the satellite Jupiter XIII in 1974 the IAU Task Group for Outer Solar System Nomenclature granted names to satellites V-XIII, and provided for a formal naming process for future satellites to be discovered. These met no particularly enthusiastic reception. Two other proposals for naming the satellites were made between 19, both by Soviet astronomers, E. in science fiction and popular science articles ), they were still rarely if ever met in astronomical literature until the 1970s. Although the 1955 names met with immediate acceptance in some quarters (e.g. Marsden suggested a nomenclature for these satellites in 1955. The other irregular satellites (discovered 1904 to 1951) were, in the overwhelming majority of astronomical literature, simply left nameless. By a popular though unofficial convention, Jupiter V, discovered in 1892, was given the name Amalthea, first used by the French astronomer Camille Flammarion. However, by the late 19th century these names had fallen out of favor, and for a long time it was most common to refer to them in the astronomical literature simply as 'Jupiter I', 'Jupiter II', etc., or as 'the first satellite of Jupiter', 'Jupiter's second satellite', etc.īy the first decade of the 20th century, the names Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto had once again recovered popularity, but the later-discovered moons, numbered, usually in Roman numerals V (5) through XII (12), remained unnamed. The Galilean moons of Jupiter ( Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were named by Simon Marius soon after their discovery in 1610. Since then, some small moons have not received names. Until 2009, names were applied to all planetary moons discovered, regardless of size. The number will continue to rise as current satellite discoveries are documented and new satellites are discovered.Īt the IAU General Assembly in July 2004, the WGPSN suggested it may become advisable to not name small satellites, as CCD technology makes it possible to discover satellites as small as 1 km in diameter. Names have also been given to some satellites of minor planets, including the dwarf planet candidates Salacia and Varda which have one satellite each. Since then, names have been given to 137 additional planetary and dwarf planetary satellites: 52 satellites of Jupiter, 43 of Saturn, 22 of Uranus, 12 of Neptune, 5 of Pluto, 2 of Haumea, and 1 each of Eris, Gonggong, Quaoar, and Orcus. The choice of names is often determined by a satellite's discoverer however, historically some satellites were not given names for many years after their discovery for instance, Titan was discovered by Huygens in 1655, but was not named until 1847, almost two centuries later.īefore the IAU assumed responsibility for astronomical nomenclature, only twenty-five satellites had been given names that were in wide use and are still used: 1 of Earth, 2 of Mars, 5 of Jupiter, 10 of Saturn, 5 of Uranus, and 2 of Neptune. Prior to its formation, the names of satellites have had varying histories. That committee is known today as the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). The naming of moons has been the responsibility of the International Astronomical Union's committee for Planetary System Nomenclature since 1973.

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