Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-13
FINDING OF NAMES
FOR PLANETS HARD
DISCOVERIES of Two Asteroids
Number Them, as Titles
Become Scarce.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, March 13.-The dis
covery of baby planets nowadays pre-
sents less dificulty than the finding of
names for them.
When Prof. Giovanni Lacchini and
Luigi Volta, directore Of Pinotorinese
Observatory. at Turin, Italy, announced
the other day that two new asteroids
had been found they added numbers
1857 and 1858 to the swarm of rocks
and fragments moving between the or
bits of Mars and Jupiter.
Evidently the sky searchers had run
out of names or were waiting for an OPP
portunity to check that list of 1900
plus to avoid duplication, because the
latest planetoids simply were given the
prosaic tags of 1881 BA and 1881 OR.
More romantic astronomers, however,
have run the gamut of fancy in naming
the others-parts, possibly, of an ex-
ploded planet or the material OF
planet which failed to coalesce.
Used Wives Names.
The first and largest of the lot
discovered more than a century ago
was named Ceres. The god OF love
supplied the name for Eros, which has
been attracting unusual attention re-
Gently through its near approach OF
$4,000 900 miles to the earth. Eros was
number 433 on the list.
Before it was reached the names of
all the available Greek and Roman
divinities and the heroes and demi-
gods of classical lore were plundered
for christening purpoSes-each dis
1@1x y4vzr Inn 1eVhHf n a
name of his own choosing for his
planetoid.
Then personal names began to appear
names Of wives and daughters and
Sweethearts. That is why some of these
babies Of the sky-10 to $50 miles in
diameter-travel merrily through space
tagged Dora, Agnes, Laura, Jenny, Edna,
Sophia, Alice and Ida.
Chicago Is AsterOid.
Then there are the flowers: Begonia,
Camellia, Petunia and Primrose. Few
Chicagoans know it, but one of the
asteroids Is named after the city by the
inland sea; Pittsburgh likewise Is per-
petuated In the sky. Princetonia was
added to the list when DR.. Raymond s.
Guam of Princeton, the discoverer,
wanted to honor his university. Ocean
steamships furnished other names, and
astronomers chose the names of their
pet dogs.
The discovery of the planetoids is
one of the great romances of the sky.
Astronomers long ago observed that
there was certain set ratio in the
distances of the major planets from
the sun. There was an unaceountable
space, however, between Mars and
Jupiter, and telescopes were directed
there for a possible planet.
Piazzi, an italian, from his observa-
tory in Palermo, Sicily, inaugurated the |
new century In 1901 by finding the |
first baby planet 1t was $50 miles IN |
diameter mere speck IS compared |
with the major planets-and was given |
the name Ceres.
Photos Aid Discoveries.
Others we're found and after sky |
photography came to the aid of aStron-
omers, the number grew into the hun
dreds It became a business to yawn
over until astronomical ennui was dis
sipated By the finding Of eccentric Eros
in 1898. the eaFth's nearest neishbor
in the sky next to the moon.
The two latest members Of the family
Of asteroids were revealed on photogra'
pker plates IN Turin Ordinarily these |
small bodies are too minute to be OBJ |
served te,escopically.