How Comets Get Their Names 🌠

[Loppy]

Choosing names for comets may not always be very easy! In general, they are referred to by the name of the discoverer , or the name of the space probe, which has been the worldwide practice only since the beginning of the current century. For instance, Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 was so christened because it was the ninth short periodic Comet to be identified by Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy. Comets’ names often include acronyms of spacecraft containing the words like LINEAR, SOHO, WISE etc. While these missions are really good at finding comets!​

 

[supermax_thelion1]

This is so fascinating! I’ve always been curious about how comets get their names. It’s amazing to think how missions like SOHO and LINEAR have contributed to discovering so many of them. Shoemaker–Levy 9 is such a cool example—imagine having your name attached to a celestial object!