Discoverer of Neptune's New Moon likes 'Polyphemus' for a Name

Now that the initial excitement over the finding of a new moon orbiting Neptune has subsided, astronomers can get to the fun business of giving the distant moon a name more interesting than S/2004 N 1.

As the 14th orbiting body to be added to the cache of Neptunian moons, the satellite will eventually be named after a character in Greek or Roman mythology, specifically one that has something do to with water, as Neptune is the Roman god of the sea. (Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, holds equal weight in the naming process.) 

Mark Showalter, the astronomer and senior researcher at the SETI Institute credited with discovering the new moon, will get the final say in naming the new moon - though he may be open to suggestions.

Showalter also discovered the two most recently named moons of Pluto, and instead of picking names for them himself, he opted to crowdsource the naming process. After collecting the top suggestions for new Plutonian moon names - all of which had to relate to the mythical underworld - Showalter held an online poll to choose the winning names. The winners were Keroberos, named after the three-headed dog that guards the entrance to Hades, and Styx, which is the river that separates the underworld from Earth and also the name of the goddess of the river. (The name Vulcan was the top contender, but was ruled out because it makes no reference to the mythical underworld.)

It's still undecided whether a similar online effort to name the new Neptune moon will happen.

Showalter told PBS he's keen on the name Polyphemus, referring to the Cyclops -- son of Thoosa, a mythical sea nymth, and Poseidon, the Greek sea god.

In Homer's epic poem the Odyssey, Polyphemus traps Odysseus and 12 of his crew in a cave on the island of Cyclopes, eating several of them before the men attack the monster with a wooden spike to the eye, blinding the Cyclops and allowing the surviving men to escape.

"I happen to like hideous monsters myself," Showalter said to PBS. "That's just a personal bias."

S/2004 N 1, which orbits Neptune every 23 hours, is located between the orbits of the moons Larissa (named after a lover of Poseidon) and Proteus (a Greek sea god, son of Oceanus and Tethys).

Visit the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature for a full list names, naming requirements and name origins of the all the bodies in the solar system.