Home > Naming of natural satellites

• The moons of Mars were named by their discoverer in 1878 soon after their discovery in 1877.

• The Galilean moons of Jupiter ( Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were named by Simon Marius soon after their discovery in 1610. However, by the late 19th century these names had fallen out of favor, and for a long time (until the mid 20th century) it was most common to refer to them in the astronomical literature simply as "Jupiter I", "Jupiter II", "Jupiter III" and "Jupiter IV", or as "the first satellite of Jupiter", "Jupiter's second satellite", etc.

• The moons of Jupiter discovered between 1904 and 1951 were not named until 1975, being known until then simply by their Roman numeral designations (Jupiter VI through Jupiter XII). The moon Amalthea (Jupiter V), discovered in 1892Events January 1 Ellis Island begins accepting immigrants to the United States. January 14 Death of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, second in line heir to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Next in line is his younger b, was unofficially named but its name was also not made official until 1975. Most likely Charles Kowal's discovery of LedaLeda (pronounced "LEE da") is a satellite of Jupiter that was discovered by Charles T. Kowal at the Mount Palomar Observatory on September 14, 1974, right after three nights' worth of photographic plates had been taken ( September 11 through 13; Leda appe (Jupiter XIII) in 19741974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). Events January-February January 5 Dungeons & Dragons officially released. February 4 Patricia Hearst, the 19 year old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped finally prompted the IAUThe International Astronomical Union (IAU) unites national astronomical societies from around the world. It is a member of the International Council of Science (ICSU). It is the recognised authority for the naming of stars, planets, asteroids and other ce to act. Since the names of the Galilean satellites themselves had fallen out of favor, it is perhaps not unusual that the discoverers of the new smaller satellites did not see fit to name them either.

• The seven known moons (at the time) of SaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. It is a gas giant, the second-largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter. It was named after the Roman god Saturn. Its symbol is a stylized representation of the god's sickle ( Unicode: ♄). Physical ch were named in 1847Events January 4 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government. January 13 The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California. January 16 John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory. by John HerschelJohn Frederick William Herschel ( March 7, 1792 May 11, 1871) was an English mathematician and astronomer. He was the son of astronomer William Herschel. John Herschel originated the use of the Julian day system in astronomy and made several important con. Until then, Titan was known as the "Huygenian (or Huyghenian) satellite of Saturn". Hyperion was discovered soon after in 1848 and also named in accordance with Herschel's naming scheme, and the eight moons had Roman numeral designations in order of their distance from Saturn. The ninth moon Phoebe was named by its discoverer in 1899 soon after its discovery.

• The four known moons (at the time) of Uranus were named in 1852 by John Herschel, not long after the discovery of the later two in 1851. Later, the fifth known moon Miranda was named by its discoverer in 1949 soon after its discovery.

• The one known moon (at the time) of Neptune was not named for many decades. Although the name Triton was suggested in 1880, it did not come into general use until the mid 20th-century. In the astronomical literature it was simply referred to as "the satellite of Neptune". Later, the second known moon Nereid was named by its discoverer in 1949 soon after its discovery.

The names of all subsequently discovered satellites were officially approved by the IAU's committee for Planetary System Nomenclature, which was formed in 1973 and is today known as the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). In some cases, names such as Janus and Leda and Charon were suggested by their discoverers.