Terry Blanton wrote:
To date there are 491 planets verified and many awaiting that status:
That's neat! I did not know there are so many.
This list shows 5 methods of detecting planets. it is good that they have multiple methods. I wonder how many planets have been detected by two or more methods? It says there are 491 detected, and there are 593 listed in the 5 categories, so 102 overlap.
I guess you could go through the data tables and try to correlate names. The planet names are great, by the way: WASP-19, OGLE-TR-56, CoRoT-7 . . . imagine if people in the future cross interstellar space and move to these places. Imagine living in a place called CoRoT-7. Kind of awkward. I guess if they live there they will have the prerogative to change the name.
People have a tendency to preserve aboriginal place names, such as Massachusetts and Mt. Fuji. Whoever arrives first gets to name things. (Some people say "Fuji" is an Ainu word. There are many exotic-sounding Ainu placenames farther north especially in Hokkaido: Barato, Misumai, Teshibetsu, Onnetou . . . http://www.jref.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-43063.html)
- Jed
