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Moons of our Solar System
Moons of our Solar System

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1.6 Naming moons

Agreeing on names for astronomical bodies has never been easy. Even the names of planets have been disputed. Uranus was originally called ‘George’s Star’, in honour of King George III, by its discoverer Sir William Herschel. Apart from the Earth, the other planets of the Solar System are all named after gods in Greek and Roman mythology. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) now arbitrates on the names of moons (and their surface features), but the process is not without its twists and turns as this sequence describes.

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