I know that the current planets have been named after mythological Gods and such, but if a new planet were to be discovered what should it be named? It could be anything (doesn't have to be a god). Give your suggestion(s) and reasons...

mines is 'Bacchus' (aka the partying "drunk" God).

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Endeavor -
I like the traditional naming process because, in the begining of optical astronomy, the planets were symbolic of the gods they were named after. To "shift gears" now would depart from the traditional naming process and so start the trend of forgeting our important astrononomical history. Yes, Pluto is an example but I'm sure Clyde considered Goofy as a name but thought it daffy, Donald, but thought it was only ducky in the U.K., and on and on. With all those mythical gods out there not used yet, why not continue with tradition (sure I would like a planet named after me but who else would care?)? Mr Q

We already have the Greek/Roman gods covered, how about some of the other pantheons? The next one can be Huitzilopchtli (just because I'd love to see the blow-dried news anchors try to pronounce it!)

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
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"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Maybe the Innuit have a name for "that big ball of ice orbiting the Sun with a semi-major axis of 150 astronomical units" ?

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Wtf2008

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Rupert.

Sedna?

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Bob!
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (Planet or not, it still has a name), Xena (what ever happened to that tenth planetish object?), and Bob. Has a nice ring to it...

New Pluto as it is the real 9th planet.

Or if you mean a dwarf planet, of which we are expecting 100s over the next century or so, then just DP5.

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Dicoao(Drunk In Charge Of An Orbit)

As with Occam (above) I think it should be some combination of letters and numerals indicating what star it is orbiting, and how far from the star it is. If it is orbiting the Sun, I think it should also indicate the year it was discovered.

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Ratslido20008(rolling around the sun, laughing its donkey off)

I'd be OK with that if its atmosphere was primarily nitrous oxide, and it was discovered in 20008.

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Slusho

Seriously, they should sell naming rights. It might help get them some funding instead of sucking on government milk.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

What will we do when the next Enron bites the dust with a planet named after it? Will we retain the name? Let some other megaconglomerate put their name on it? Even if that means having the inevitable TPFKAE (The Planet Formerly Known As Enron) footnote applied to it in all scholarly works from then on?

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The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

We could take Authur C. Clarke's idea (from "Rendezvous with Rama") and start using the names of Hindu gods. That should do for quite some time.

We can name them after monsters from popular fantasy role-playing games. Don't you want to see a planet called the Gelatinous Cube?

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Since, AFAIK, no new planets are really expected, how about: 'Surprise!'?

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I think that is one of the dorkiest things I've ever heard, but is oh so very funny. I think if I were giving a presentation on the a planet named Gelatinous Cube I wouldn't be able to hold a straight face whenever I said it's name.

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I would have a worse time with a planet named Black Pudding.

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Obama. With an orbiting moon Oprah.

Since America is in the cutting edge of astronomy research it would be justified to give them native American deities names. There´s no shortage of gods across the Americas. Europeans have already had their fair share.

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I propose using random letters. Therefore, WOXHFG is my vote.

Tralfaz.

Yep, Astro's original doggy name from The Jetsons.

There's just something about that name.

It got a new, official, name: Eris.

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Science is like sex. Sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.
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Hence my suggestion above

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Enron could sell the naming rights and recoup some of their investment. Astronomers can go on using the catalog numbers they seem to like so much.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

Shouldn't Oprah be the larger satellite hehe

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I agree. That was an awesome one Noclever. Laughed like crazy.

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Planet Jesus.

The next planet imaged will probably be named, Alpha Centuari A1 2014


Actually, they are more like stars.

As Oprah grows from increase mass, the orbit shifts like Sirius or Procyon's past.

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