2.34 Star and Planet Names

The question of stellar nomenclature has always been a part of Star Trek, as far back as the original series. While it wasn’t always clear as to which star we were heading for, with names like Ceti Alpha (a simple reversal of the accepted standard in the astronomical community), we knew we were heading for some specific place.

Star Trek: The Next Generation did make an effort to conform to the established standard, which is as follows: In any constellation visible from Earth, the brightest star gets the first Greek letter (alpha), followed by the name of the constellation. Example: The brightest star in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan) is Alpha Cygni. The second brightest is beta Cygni. The third, gamma Cygni. And so on. When you’ve run out of Greek letters, you continue with numbers. Planets get Roman numerals; moons get small letters: alpha Cygni IVc is the third moon of the fourth planet.

Anyhow, that’s the way that works. Now, finding a habitable planet around a promising star is another matter altogether; we usually manage to find them when we need them.

M stars have ancient names like Betelgeuse or Achernar. Made-up names like that are fine. The same rules can apply here: Betelgeuse VI is valid. Altair IV is valid (though, as we all know, Altair IV blew up in 1956 in Forbidden Planet).

Voyager Update: Our Starfleet people don’t know the formal names of anything in the Delta Quadrant. Neelix and Kes will come up with names for many of the stars and planets we encounter, and Captain Janeway will assign designators in order to update the galactic database.