Blue Collar Scientist

I thought I’d collect all the online examples I could find of reactions to the recent asteroid names. I’ll try to keep it up to date over the next few days. Please let me know of anything I’ve missed!

First, stuff written by the namesakes:

PZ Myers has posted on Pharyngula.

Michael Stackpole has some remarks here. I’m assuming this is going to get wide play on science fiction and gaming blogs; if you are reading this, would you alert me if you know of something?

Phil has posted on the asteroid bearing his name (Michael Stackpole and Rebecca Watson both drop by to comment) and then followed up about the relative sizes of the various asteroids I named in this batch (Rebecca does some good-natured gloating in the comments, and I clarify a few things as well).

Skepchick has coverage by a.real.girl, with Rebecca in the comments; and Rebecca herself posts to the SGU Blog.

Next, stuff written by others:

Archaeoporn covers all the names in one post!

Greg Laden heard about it on the radio and then followed up PZ’s posting.

The Bad Astronomy/Universe Today Forums are discussing things here.

I alerted the Skeptic Friends Network where I expect there will be some follow-up discussion.

The JREF Forums have a discussion kicked off by Rebecca.

Stuart Goldman, my old editor at Sky & Telescope, pointed out some T-Shirts of interest.

Phil is already getting international coverage.

John Scalzi waxes jealous.

Robert Sim, the roboticist, covers the story and demands photos.

The Classic BattleTech forums are discussing Stackpole here.

The Farpoint Forums are abuzz about Stackpole as well.

Jim Lippard discusses Stackpole on the Lippard Blog.

And Say We Did discusses the utter coolness of all this.

There’s a discussion going on at Atheism From Mexico (Ateísmo Desde México) which I don’t fully understand, because my Spanish is next to non-existent. I guess that the OP says I’ve named asteroids after four famous skeptics, and the follow-on has something to do with Rebecca’s house being seen in Google Earth? Someone help me out?

Brian Griggs, in a short and to-the-point message, approves of the asteroid Stackpole.

Rebecca makes the front page of Current with the story (permalink here).

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast for this week leads with the news of Rebeccawatson and the other asteroids.

Tapetenageln reports on Stackpole.

AnakinWeb has a French-language discussion of Stackpole. I know French, and it seems someone reading the discussion thought it might have been an April Fool’s Day joke.

The Daily Camera, a Colorado newspaper, has a story and interview with Phil Plait about the asteroid named for him.

Michael Stackpole came to my attention in the late 1980’s when I read of some of his research that debunked claims that role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons led to involvement in Satanic cults and killings. The research was eventually compiled into The Pulling Report in 1990.

For some years now, Mike has been the Executive Director of the Arizona Skeptics. Every year he and his fellows in that group compile a list of predictions, some of them serious and some of them humorous, that are of the style of the annual predictions that so-called psychics make. Year in and year out, the organization comes up with more accurate predictions than the psychics, by wildly huge margins.

Although I follow the predictions every year, it was from his appearance on Skepticality some time ago that I learned more about some other things Mike does - namely, he goes toe-to-toe with the crazies on radio shows, representing skepticism and rational thinking in the mass media, where the cards are stacked most strongly against you. After doing a bit of research last November, I put Mike on my list of people who needed to have an asteroid named after him.

So there I was at TAM 5.5 last January, eating dinner with a bunch of complete strangers, when Mike walks in and sits down next to me. Nobody else at the table seemed to have “made” him, so I brought up the Pulling Report and said something that probably sounded sycophantic. Mike and I later waxed nostalgic in the hotel bar - which contained an original Star Wars poster - and I ended up having lunch with him and a bunch of other great people on the last day of the conference. The whole time I’m sitting there thinking how much I’d love to spill the beans that I’d just written a proposal to name an asteroid after him - but couldn’t, because the process is supposed to be secret.

The citation I submitted for Mike reads:

Michael Stackpole (b. 1957) is a prolific and popular science fiction author, and is a popular advocate for science and rational thinking through media appearances, public speaking, and writing.

Let’s cut right to the chase:

I am deeply privileged to have named asteroids after PZ Myers of Pharyngula; Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer; Rebecca Watson, founder of Skepchick; and Michael Stackpole, skeptic and science fiction author¹. Quick links to my thoughts on the names:

• PZ Myers
• Phil Plait
• Rebecca Watson
• Michael Stackpole

Please go off to their respective blogs and websites and offer these people the congratulations they richly deserve, and then come back to read the rest of the story.

…

As my handful of readers probably know, I’m an astronomer. I’ve done a bit of research on cataclysmic variable stars, active galactic nuclei, and asteroids. During the course of the asteroid work, my collaborator, Dave Healy, and I have discovered almost 500 asteroids.

Back in 2000 and 2001, I was involved day-to-day in an asteroid observing program in southern Arizona, at an observatory bearing the peculiar name Junk Bond Observatory. Its name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the way it was financed, but it is a serious place, with robotic 0.4 and 0.8 meter (16 inch and 32 inch) telescopes devoted to research every clear night.

On the night of November 23, 2001, I was sitting in the cold at the 16″ instrument, trying to debug one of the endless problems this telescope had. In the course of a test run of my latest attempt to overcome the problem, I took three images of a previously unknown asteroid. The following night, I followed up on the find, and reported it to the Minor Planet Center, at Harvard. Within a day or two, I was credited with having discovered (yet another) new asteroid.

When first discovered, asteroids get a “provisional designation” - the year followed by a letter-number code. After the asteroid is followed for a while, and an accurate orbit is determined - something that typically takes several years - the asteroid receives a number. Once an asteroid is numbered, it may be named. The naming process takes a few months, so the asteroid names I’m discussing today, which I learned had been approved by the IAU last Friday, were being worked on in December and January, and were formally proposed to the IAU in February.

The asteroid I discovered on November 23, 2000 was originally called 2000 WG11. It was followed for a few orbits, and eventually numbered 165347. Now, it is officially named Philplait - but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

By the following spring, most of the telescope’s problems were under control, either fixed with nuts and bolts, or worked around with clever software techniques. My collaborator, Dave Healy, observed for most of the month of March, including the latter half of the month. He discovered new asteroids in the same way I had, on March 22, 23, and 29. After being tracked for a few years, they were duly given numbers:

• 2001 FB10, discovered on March 22, was numbered 153289. It is now officially known as Rebeccawatson.
• 2001 FP86, discovered the following night on March 23, was numbered 165612. It is now officially known as Stackpole.
• 2001 FC122, discovered on March 29, was numbered 153298. It is now officially known as Paulmyers.

A peculiarity of astronomy is that by long-standing tradition, the person who discovers an asteroid gets to name it. In order to do so, the discoverer must write a short explanation of the proposed name (called a “name citation”), and send it to the International Astronomical Union for approval. The International Astronomical Union is the international authority for celestial nomenclature - what they say goes, and their decisions about naming are respected by astronomers worldwide. These are the same people that demoted Pluto from planet status a few years back, so it is best not to trifle with their power.

(The IAU’s activities in naming celestial objects stand in sharp contrast to the companies selling the opportunity to name a star after a loved one. While some may consider this practice to result in an entertaining and worthwhile novelty, the name has no official standing and will never be heard of or used by astronomers.)

The number of asteroids Dave and I have discovered that are numbered but not named has been growing over the last year or two, and Dave started bugging me to propose some names. Discussions and brainstorming ensued. I take the responsibility of naming an asteroid exceptionally seriously. An asteroid name is forever, as Phil Plait points out:

Think of it: unless some future astronaut mines it, a billion years from now that rock will still be orbiting the Sun. Itʼs almost literally a piece of immortality.

I feel as though I have to give some careful consideration to the matter, and to choose names that are meaningful and important in some way. My longstanding interest in skepticism and in science education had previously resulted in me naming asteroids after Derek Colanduno and Robyn “Swoopy” McCarthy, the hosts of Skepticality, who had pioneered the new media of podcasting and put it to service for skeptical thinking. It seemed logical to continue the practice.

The next few postings to my blog will be about the people I chose to name asteroids after - and their namesake space rocks.

1. I’ve listed them in order of Technorati “authority.” [↩]