Astronomical Names, Catalogs and Databases

1. Astronomical Names, Catalogs and Databases

2. Like the rest of astronomy, nomenclature is steeped in historical precedent • today we have a mixture of haphazard names and partially successful attempts at standardization • The most prominent sky objects have many ‘standard’ and ‘traditional’ names • e.g. Andromeda Galaxy = M31 = UGC 454 = 2MASX J00424433+4116074 Proxima Centauri = V* V645 Cen • “Professional astronomers generally avoid using such traditional names, except for the most universally recognized” Chromey p99 • this is utterly false… • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014ApJ...782...89S • http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013ApJ...764..131C

3. Star Names • All of the brightest stars (a few 100) have traditional names (e.g. Rigel, Sirius, Zubenelgenubi) • Many naming conventions exist for fainter stars: • 1603: Bayer designation: αOri • 1722: Flamsteed catalog: 58 Ori Ordered by brightness by increasing RA

4. 1859 Durchmusterung catalogs: CPD/DB/CD +08 1123 • Henry Draper catalog: HD 39801 Decl. Increasing RA Catalog prefix 39801st star to be spectroscopically classified

5. Modern Star Catalogs • Computer-based, likely to include sky coordinate or region in the name • e.g. Hubble Guide Star Catalog ( 109 entries!) GSC2.3 N9I5-00041 Sky ‘tile’ Catalog # in tile Catalog prefix

6. Variable Stars • Nearly all stars are variable at the ~1% level, which was below the photometric accuracy of pre-modern era instruments • A small fraction of stars are wildly variable • Naming convention: prefix + constellation R -> Z, then RR – RZ, SA – SZ, etc. , then V335, V336… e.g., RR Lyr , V341 Ori

7. What is RR Lyrae’s fractional change in light output over one period?

8. Supernovae • Supernovae (exploding stars) are a type of (really) variable star • Convention: SN YYYY A Discovery year First one of the year = A, then -> Z, then aa, ab, etc. prefix

9. SN1993J VLBA movie

10. How to Waste Your Money • Numerous ‘star registries’ will gladly take your money to have your star name recorded in their ‘catalog’. • Unfortunately, nobody else (astronomers, the general public, other registry companies) will either recognize or actually use your star’s name. • The same stars have been ‘sold’ many times over by different companies.

11. International Astronomical Union • Only the IAU has the official capacity to name astronomical objects. • rules are a bit less lenient for objects outside our solar system 2006: IAU demoting Pluto to ‘dwarf planet’

12. Solar System Bodies • A provisional name is usually given to new discoveries, since many are never re-confirmed • Clearing house for discoveries is the Minor Planet Center at Harvard • Confirmed discoveries are assigned a ‘catalog name’ and a name chosen by the discoverer (subject to approval)

13. Asteroid 253 Mathilde

14. Numerous IAU rules didn’t prevent these asteroids: • James Bond (9007) • Tomhanks(12818) • Megryan(8353) • Monty Python (13681) • Mr. Spock (2309) With automated sky surveys, asteroid names have gotten less interesting: e.g., 2014 OT276 (408749) In the LSST era, look forward to every new object being alpha-numeric.

15. Large Synoptic Survey Telescope • To be built in Chile • 8m telescope, 3 degree field of view • Scan the entire sky in numerous filters every few days • Data will be available promptly online after exposure www.lsst.org

16. Comet P/1990 B1 = 116P/Wild 1st comet discovered in 2nd half of Feb., 1990 P/ = periodic C/ = non-periodic D/ = disappeared/lost

17. Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko Nov 12 2014: Rosetta probe will deploy a lander which will harpoon the comet.

19. Non-Stellar Objects Outside the Solar System • 1781: Messier catalog contains ~100 of the brightest galaxies, star clusters, nebulae

20. Non-stellar objects outside the Solar System • 1887: Messier catalog expanded to the New General Catalog (NGC) and the Index Catalog (IC) in 1895 • neither make any distinction between galactic and extragalactic objects • Modern era resources: • Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS): 350 million objects e.g. SDSS J113459.47+002509.1 • NASA Extragalactic Database (‘NED’) • compendium of many catalogs

21. IAU Naming Guidelines • http://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/ • For non-solar system bodies, recommend a catalog prefix, followed by sky coordinates, e.g., 2FGL J0319.8+4130 • Dictionary of nomenclature of celestial objects contains over 24,000 catalog prefixes http://cds.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/Dic-Simbad

22. Online Resources • The SIMBAD astronomical database provides basic data, cross-identifications, bibliography and measurements for astronomical objects outside the solar system. • NED is a comprehensive database of multiwavelength data for extragalactic objects • For stars, largest is HST Guide Star catalog

23. Finding Charts • In the optical, still traditional to cross-check the telescope pointing using the star field in the guide camera • Can find them (e.g., theskylive.com) or generate them online (simbad)

24. Journals • 4 top tier journals: • North America • Astrophysical Journal (ApJ = “Aaap-Jay”) • Astronomical Journal (AJ = “Eh-Jay”) • Rest of the world • Monthly Notices of Royal Astron. Society (MNRAS) • Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A = “Ay-N-Ay”) • Authors submit manuscripts • sent for peer-review to another author in the field • if accepted for publication, author pays page charges • Institutions pay for journal subscriptions • articles more than 1 year old are generally free to the public

25. Preprints • Preprint server is astro-ph at arXiv.org(“archive”) • Registered authors can upload manuscripts • journal acceptance is not a requirement (caveat to the reader) • Authors can upload revised versions at any time • Everything is free for authors and readers

26. Astrophysics Data System (ADS) • Hosted by SAO/NASA at Harvard • There are no ads on ADS, it’s free to all users • Over 2 million astrophysics articles from several 100 journals and also arXiv • Full text search, author search, citation info, etc. • Customizable user interface/paper library