Re: Demotion of Pluto

----- Original Message -----
From: "caeruleancentaur" <caeruleancentaur@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 10:03 AM
Subject: Demotion of Pluto


> With the recent demotion of Pluto to the status of a dwarf planet, I
> was curious about how other conlangs/cultures name their planets, if
> there are any.
The Kasshi live in a solar system that is quite different from ours.  Thus,
their naming followed a different tradition.

Their planet orbits the larger of a binary star system.  The two suns each
have several terrestrial planets.  In addition, there are several Jovian
planets much further off, orbiting the pair.  These were actually stolen
from another star in a near-collission millions of years ago.  However, they
are too far away to be visible to the naked eye.  There is also a Kuiper
Belt-type region in mutual orbit around the two suns, and further out an
Oort Cloud, which was heavily disarrayed by the passing star.

Their terminology thus evolved in a very different manner.  The categories
recognized in "modern" times are (I don't know their terms):

"Planet": Large rocky bodies, includes the five terrestrial planets of the
primary sun, the three of the secondary sun, the large moon of Galhaf (their
homeworld), and the larger moons of the jovians

"Cold star": Jovian planets

"Sub-Planet": Objects smaller than "Planet", but still large enough to have
a roughly spherical shape, including medium-sized moons of the jovians and
large "Kuiper Belt" objects.

"Small Rocky Bodies": Various asteroids and other sub-planetary masses

"Comets"

Note that, unlike our terminology, where the object happens to orbit is not
important for naming.