Newly discovered planet has ability to make grown adults snicker like 10-year-olds

24 Sextanis is a subgiant star, located in the constellation Sextans, orbited by two recently identified planets. They are called Sex b and Sex c. One of the discoverers of planet Sex c is a Caltech professor named John Johnson.

National Geographic has a thing or two to say about this cheeky little coincidence as part of a discussion on wide, un-standardized variety of naming conventions for newly discovered planets and planetoids.

Sometimes newer stars get named after the instruments or techniques used to find them, giving us exoplanets with names such as OGLE-TR-56b.That's thanks to the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE), which was designed to study variability in starlight.

The issue has led some people to suggest we should formalize a naming convention for exoplanets based on mythology, although at 473 planets and counting, we could run out of Greco-Roman names real fast. Still others have said to save the proper names for habitable, Earthlike worlds.

Suggested, via Submitterator, by Ted Chamberlain

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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DeWynken

I for one welcome our new overlords from Planet Sex C.
MadRat

I figure one of those plants must be where the Pervs from Robert Asprin’s MythAdventures series lives. As for getting the naming positions out of order, just name the planet in the middle “missionary”.
Anonymous

By standard naming, these should be called 24 Sextantis b and c, or 24 Sex b and c for short. There’s no way you should be able to drop the 24 – it’s not like there aren’t other stars in Sextans that might have planets.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  I dunno…sex after a 2-4 can be difficult.
  - Ugly Canuck
    
    Continuing my reply to Anon #30:
    In addition, I have seen 2-4s dropped before, too.
    So it can happen…sad to say.
nutbastard

Sex C time, very nice!
DeWynken

affirmative. You know it’s business time because the scientists left their socks on.
SteveKiwi

I think we should find out what the locals call it, and just use that. Would save a lot of geek arguments.
- AirPillo
  
  I can just imagine the endless number of places in our universe that would end up with names which translate to: “It’s a planet, you idiot”
- Boba Fett Diop
  
  I imagine they are mostly green women. Set phasers to sexy!
- peterbruells
  
  I think we should find out what the locals call it, and just use that. Would save a lot of geek arguments.
  
  Would it? Say, what’s the locals’ name for the 3rd planet of our solar system again?
  
  Erde, natÃ¼rlich.
  - Brainspore
    
    Or if you ask the locals that the aliens were trying to contact in Star Trek IV: “EEEEEEE EEEEEEEE GBAAAAUUUUUUUUUULLLLLAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGG”
rduncan10

So now duchebag astronomers have a pickup line:

Hey babe, you’re like the third planet of the star Sextans. Sex C.
ryanrafferty

My sense of humour must be debilitate today, but when I think Sex I think fun… not funny.
Ugly Canuck

I hope Planet Sex is close to Planet Claire…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1PYnMB7GDQ

Time to get in the flying sausage and go see.
spejic

There already exists a perfectly reasonable system used in Star Trek:TNG – use the name of the star and then add a number for the position of the planet from the star, superseded by the local name of the planet if there is one. It saddens me to think that Star Trek:TNG, now 15 years old, is leaving the common consciousness of even the cosmologists.
- travtastic
  
  The problem with that system is that things are rarely discovered in the right order, and everything then goes to hell. Saturn’s rings are the perfect example.
IronEdithKidd

Yup, accurate post title.

BB is full of win today!
Brainspore

I’m just a sweet transvestite
from Transexual,
Transylvaniaaaa…
- Felton
  
  Now that’s a place for a vacation! Don’t go to OGLE, though…bunch of perverts. Sex c is a fun place to visit, of course, although the indigenous beings there can be a bit shallow. Or is that a Sexist thing to say? ;-)
Anonymous

@spejic
It seems they’re already doing that, i.e. Sex a, Sex b, etc as the names of the planets that orbit Sextans.
As per naming by position, what happens when we discover another planet in the 3rd position after we’ve discover 6 other planets? Do we rename every planet from position 4 out? That sounds confusing.
wgmleslie

In before Uranus!
cory

Sex c planet’s Johnson is one enormous, hard-working, upright citizen for science.
oedrex1

I have a cunning linguist technique which I can make you stars with, lady BB readers…together we could discover a whole new universe.
Jer

“The issue has led some people to suggest we should formalize a naming convention for exoplanets based on mythology, although at 473 planets and counting, we could run out of Greco-Roman names real fast.”

Yes, if you only use Greco-Roman mythology you’ll run out of names reasonably quickly with the speed that planets are discovered these days.

But you know, there are other mythologies that can be tapped into – many of them as robust if not moreso than the Greco-Roman one when it comes to names. The epics from India alone should provide enough names to last for years. And the Bible is full of names – how about the planet “Nehamiah” or the planet “Nebuchanezzur”. Or even “Isaac”.

I’m still pulling for Achilles, Theseus, Odysseus and Jason to get some planet names, though. Cause hey – why not?
- Anonymous
  
  my thought exactly. and don’t forget norse mythology, or egyptian. there are plenty of cultures with rich mythologies that can be tapped for cool names.
  - Donald Petersen
    
    Sure. I mean the Norse names in particular are underutilized, if you ask me. Other than Tuesday through Friday in the week, we don’t use them too much in day-to-day conversation.
    
    Okay, we use the names of the days of the week a hell of a LOT, but still…
Brainspore

Talk about false advertising… it turns out that planet Sex c is a gassy giant. With a full moon to its name, no doubt.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  Maybe it’s just me, but I find gassy giants to be sexually unattractive.
- Felton
  
  Brought to you by the namers of Greenland.
Anonymous

I am still waiting for planet Sex Yes Please.
Anonymous

They should name planet Sex C after me! (Because I am also a gassy giant, alas)
UncaScrooge

After billions of years, “Planet Sex” expands into “Planet Could You Sleep On Your Own Side of the Bed Please”.
Anonymous

Sulu… set a course… for.. Sextanis.
Anonymous

But can we OGLE Sex?
Donald Petersen

Aw, just sell the naming rights to the highest bidder, like you would with a sports stadium. That’ll keep your space program well-funded for awhile, and you’ll only need to navigate by the Cadillac NorthstarÂ® presented by PolarisÂ® Snowmobiles for a generation or two until we actually get there. *Then* ask the locals what they’d like us to name their former homeworld once they’ve all died from smallpox.
Beryllium

I bet that the denizens of the Sextanis system all suffer from a very sexy learning disability, just like Zapp Branigan.

Also … I was able to hold it together while reading the story, until I got to “John Johnson”. :)
Anonymous

Wonder if they’ll name the 5th planet Sextains DD a,b,c,d, double DD :) Maybe Sex DD would have 44 moons ?
MarshallClark

You OGLEing my Sextanis, Sex C?