At Sue’s party, the subject of the Hale-Bopp comet came up. If I remember correctly, Mr. Hale and Mr. Bopp were working independently, and saw the comet at about the same time. My question is: How quickly does Mr. Bopp have to chime in after Mr. Hale (or the other way around) in order to get his name attached, too?
I don’t know the answer to your question. You are right that the comet was discovered independently on the same night by Alan Hale in New Mexico, and Tom Bopp in Arizona. http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9703/hale.bopp/discoverers/index.html
There is a clearinghouse for such discoveries. It is the International Astronomical Union’s Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams at Harvard University.
Often when comets are named after two people, it is because they are working as a team. Shoemaker-Levy 9 was discovered by the team of David Levy and Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker.
So shouldn’t it’ve been called Shoemaker-Levy-Shoemaker? :D:D
If I recall correctly, the way it’s done is that if you see a comet (or some other new object, such as a nova), you contact the IAU (typically via e-mail, nowadays), and they contact some other astronomer and request independent verification. After it’s been verified, the IAU then tells the world, via various media. If you chime in before the public announcement, that’s probably enough to get your name attached to the discovery.
I think Chronos has it right. There’s also a limit of three names that they’ll attach to a comet. So if you’re caller number 4, you’re out of luck.