July 13, 2000

Planet RussellMark: A California naming company is out of this world

ALBANY, Calif.—Collaboration between a Harvard-based astronomer, Dr. Brian Marsden, and a California naming firm, the Russell Mark Group, is helping control a galactic information problem.

To reward the Russell Mark Group for expediting the global project, Marsden, director of the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has presented the firm with its own planet.

Marsden has claimed an unnamed minor planet for the firm. No. 3952 is officially named “Russellmark.” The citation reads: “Named for the Russell Mark Group, of Albany, California, in grateful appreciation of their enormous assistance in editing the citations for the name proposals submitted to the Minor Planet Center.”

Marsden records the observations of asteroids reported by astronomers around the globe. These small planets are generally named by their discoverers, who may honor a family member, a colleague, a place, even an admired writer or musician.

Minor planets are named for Shakespeare, Michaelangelo, Beethoven-and also for Garcia (Jerry), Clapton (Eric) and James Bond.

The sheer volume of discoveries and names has left Marsden buried with work. The first 10,000 discoveries took 198 years, but he says observational technology has so improved that the next 10,000 will be reported in less than three years.

Now Marsden receives help from the Russell Mark Group, the naming consultancy in Albany, Calif., just outside San Francisco. Susan Russell, founder of the group, reached out to the astronomer after she saw a Wall Street Journal article on comet naming, which Marsden also manages.

“I was intrigued by how this is done,” according to Russell. “We are always looking for inspiration for our naming clients, and I saw this as an opportunity to get another perspective in what is a unique science.”

Russell now provides pro bono assistance with the minor planet citations. They are checked and edited in batches, saving Marsden hours each month he can give to other work.

“In business, naming trends focus on speed, innovation and the cutting edge,” Russell notes. “Astronomers, however, choose inspirational themes-people they admire, places they love. Some names reflect cultural strength, some are funny, fanciful, or touching.”

Observers gave Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe adjoining asteroids on the minor planet roster. The Japanese often venerate amateur astronomers who teach children at neighborhood star parties. And while classical musicians are popular among German astronomers, the Minor Planet Center's naming committee recently vetoed what Marsden thought was a clever naming proposal from a British source: “Wewilroku,” honoring a member of the rock group Queen who trained in astronomy at University of London.

Each month about 120 observers, mostly amateurs, report their observations of celestial bodies via email to the Minor Planet Center. Once the orbit has been fixed, the object become eligible for a name.

MPC manages a web site where “urgent” observations of asteroids found near the earth are published so they can be readily verified. More routine observations about objects and their orbits are published archivally each month. Named objects are finally collected in a Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, now in its fourth edition, published by Springer.

A naming citation can be important, Marsden says. “When a minor planet is named for a well-known person or place, no explanation is needed, but often the meaning is more obscure.” He cited the name of minor planet 10195, “Nebraska.” The reason: It was the first minor planet discovered from a new observatory in that state.

Citations can be difficult to decipher, depending upon the writing or English skills of the astronomer. Different cultures can introduce misspellings and create confusion. A Japanese astronomer intending to honor the noted physicist Stephen Hawking named his minor planet “Hocking.” Somebody has to ascertain the namer's intention so the information is entered correctly into the record, Russell explains.

“That’s where Susan’s contribution has been so helpful,” Marsden says.

In turn, Russell believes her work for the Minor Planet Center benefits her firm’s clients. “Reading multicultural citations for minor planets named for endangered birds and folk tale characters, you realize there are many ways to combine words into systems that are meaningful and appealing to an audience,” she says.

“What’s most intriguing to me, though, is how these namings make a record in the stars of our own experiences, of who we are,” she continued. “It’s a way to communicate our humanity and what we love in our world.”

The Russell Mark Group provides names, branding systems, taglines, and other corporate language for the business world. Its clients include Adobe, Commerce One and Siemens in technology, Kaiser Permanente in health care and Visa in financial services