# What should we call the new ninth planet? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 20, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710 "2016-01-20T21:59:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/101 "2016-01-22T21:03:47Z")
Call it whatever you want to. It isn’t going to come anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/102 "2016-01-22T21:53:27Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > Call it whatever you want to. It isn’t going to come anyway. Next time, try foreplay…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/103 "2016-01-22T22:36:11Z")
Look, it’s pretty clear that we’ll be going with a Roman deity. All other categories are off the table. It’s a matter of tradition. It’s just how we roll. The problem, as has been touched on upthread, is that by now, all the good Roman deity names have been wasted on crappy asteroids, tiny moons and similar inconsequential space fluff. Apparently, it didn’t occur to anyone that we might need to save some of them for, you know, entire new giant planets. I mean, [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Vesta) piece of of gravel is Vesta. [This](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus_%28moon%29) is Janus. [This](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26_Proserpina) is Proserpina. Y’all see the problem. Basically, we need those names back in contention. There is only one solution to this debacle: We need to start blowing up asteroids. Also, moons. I’ll start lobbying for funds. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/104 "2016-01-22T23:36:33Z")
Has [Dis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%ABs_Pater) been taken yet? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/105 "2016-01-22T23:53:51Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > The problem, as has been touched on upthread, is that by now, all the good Roman deity names have been wasted on crappy asteroids, tiny moons and similar inconsequential space fluff. Is there anything named after Mithras? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/106 "2016-01-23T02:34:35Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Look, it’s pretty clear that we’ll be going with a Roman deity. All other categories are off the table. It’s a matter of tradition. It’s just how we roll. > > The problem, as has been touched on upthread, is that by now, all the good Roman deity names have been wasted on crappy asteroids, tiny moons and similar inconsequential space fluff. > … > There is only one solution to this debacle: > > We need to start blowing up asteroids. Also, moons. … What do you get if you blow up an asteroid? More asteroids. All of which need names. That’s not going to solve your problem. We need to get creative. \*Really \*creative. What’s my proposal you ask? We need to re-ignite belief in the Roman pantheon. Once we have plenty of Jove worshippers they’ll naturally start creating new gods & goddesses. Unlike the boring now-commonplace monotheism, there’s no scriptural basis that the old gods are the only ones forever and always. The Roman pantheon was always more like a scheming soap opera written by 2nd string novelists than anything else. Reanimate them and soon enough you’ll have offspring aplenty. Let the fanfic rule. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/107 "2016-01-23T18:18:20Z")
Asmodeus. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/108 "2016-01-24T02:31:09Z")
Bottom? [spoiler]"…Its the Bottom of The Nineth, nobody on and Earth is at bat. The count is 0 and 2. Bob, what are the stats on Earth coming back from an 0 and 2 deficit this late in the season?" “Well, when Russia was coaching, USA was a little better, but all that may have changed now… and here comes the pitch… High and Outside…” [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/109 "2016-01-24T15:25:27Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Planet 9 from Outer Space That was my first thought but after sleeping on it, it think “Tombaugh” would be appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/110 "2016-01-24T15:49:20Z")
TastyFreeze ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/111 "2016-01-24T21:23:29Z")
How is it that they can see planets revolving around other stars, yet this thing is invisible? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/112 "2016-01-24T21:33:38Z")
We can’t “see” planets orbiting other stars. We can detect some of the side effects in stellar spectrum or stellar wobbles. IOW, we detect the consequences of a potential planet’s existence and infer it’s existence from the detected consequences. Which is pretty much the same process these guys used to infer the existence of this new planet X. We haven’t actually detected it. We have detected some anomalous behavior by other stuff we can detect that would be explained by an planet that looks about like \*this \*and is located near _here_. At which point conventional optical astronomy can begin looking \*here \*with hopes of seeing a planet X. There’s no hope of ever seeing an extra-Solar planet that way. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/113 "2016-01-24T21:51:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > We can’t “see” planets orbiting other stars… [Yes we can](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_detecting_exoplanets#Direct_imaging)… sometimes. Only a [tiny percentage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Exoplanet_Discovery_Methods_Bar.png)have been discovered this way, though. [Here’s a list.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_directly_imaged_exoplanets) ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/114 "2016-01-24T22:10:43Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > Call it whatever you want to. It isn’t going to come anyway. I was going to suggest Felis silvestris catus for that reason. Or Silvester for short. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/115 "2016-01-24T22:25:30Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Bob ! You can’t call a planet “Bob.” Okay, more-or-less serious suggestion: “Typhon”. Last son of Gaia, father of monsters, and one of the giants guarding the 9th Circle of Dante’s Hell–the lake of ice. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/116 "2016-01-25T00:18:20Z")
Remember The Beatles White Album? Why not call it, “Number Nine”? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/117 "2016-01-25T01:10:03Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > “Typhon”. Last son of Gaia, father of monsters, and one of the giants guarding the 9th Circle of Dante’s Hell–the lake of ice. Hey. That really works. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/118 "2016-01-25T02:04:59Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > “Typhon”. Last son of Gaia, father of monsters, and one of the giants guarding the 9th Circle of Dante’s Hell–the lake of ice. Boy, we sure hate all thing trans-Neptunian, don’t we? One lord of the underworld, one goddess of strife, and now a terrible monster? We’re making Pluto sad. [See?](http://www.trendinside.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/pluto1-gap.jpg) What did the outer solar system ever do to us, anyway? This trend needs changing. I’m suggesting “Snugglymuffins” for the new guy. Seriously, though, “Typhon” is actually pretty good. Although, sadly, it seems that it’s already [taken](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42355_Typhon). So, back to my earlier plan of blowing up space fluff. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/119 "2016-01-25T02:58:22Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > Has [Dis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%ABs_Pater) been taken yet? OK, I went and did the research. (Well, I did a few Internet searches at least.) There are no [moons named Dis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_satellites#List). (There’s a “[Dia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia_%28moon%29)”, but no Dis.) Astonishingly enough, there aren’t [any asteroids named](http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/MPNames.html) Dis. (There’s “Disa” and “Disora” but no Dis.) Dis is a [Roman god of the underworld](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C4%ABs_Pater), often identified with Pluto, so we’d be kind of rectifying the injustice of having demoted the Lord of the Lower Realm to mere “dwarf planet” status. (It was also[used in _The Divine Comedy_ as a name for part of Hell, including the frozen lowest circle of Hell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dis_%28Divine_Comedy%29), so that adds to the appropriateness.) And the _name_ Dis has a nicely sinister sound for a frozen, vaguely uncanny world, out there in the black depths of the outer Solar System, in some strangely elongated and eccentric orbit. _Dis_. Of course, this is all [naming our planets before they’ve actually been discovered](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Chicks#/media/File:Chick_one.JPG). Also, the astronomers might very well wish to deliberately break with tradition and _not_ give a Roman name to a new Solar System planet in order to be more multicultural and all–[actual objects out there have been given a wide variety of names](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EightTNOs.png) and while they certainly aren’t completely devoid of classical Greco-Roman names (Eris, Orcus), there are also lots of worlds with names like [Quaoar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50000_Quaoar#Name) and [Sedna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90377_Sedna#Naming) and [Haumea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haumea#Name). ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2016, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710/120 "2016-01-25T03:09:59Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > Rupert. I like this one. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-should-we-call-the-new-ninth-planet/743710.md?page=7)