Designations For Extra-solar Planets
At the moment, according to the IAU, there is no agreed system for designating planets orbiting around other stars, nor is there any plan to create a naming system for extra-solar planets . A trend that is gaining prominence uses a lower-case letter (starting with "b") to extend the star's designation. For example, 16 Cygni Bb is the first extrasolar planet found around the star 16 Cygni B, itself a member of the triple star system 16 Cygni. Occasionally planet names appear by appending the star name with roman numerals (e.g. Sol I, Sol II, Sol III), but this is not used much outside of science fiction.
Read more about this topic: Astronomical Naming Conventions
Famous quotes containing the word planets:
“Why are all these dolls falling out of the sky?
Was there a father?
Or have the planets cut holes in their nets
and let our childhood out,
or are we the dolls themselves,
born but never fed?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)