Yeah. I almost commented that I hoped the IAU allows me to keep the name that I gave the lemon tree in my back yard, but thought that might seem sarcastic. Instead, I won’t let the IAU know that it has a name.

Edward: If anything, I was understating the power grab by IAU bureaucrats when it comes to naming objects in space.

It does appear to me that the planetary community had been pushing back successfully however. Rather than wait permission, they publicly name the locations, which kind of forces the IAU to later go along.

I think that a problem we are having with the IAU is that they approve the names, rather than just adding them to the registry. Traditionally, explorers get to name the features that they find. It is rather insulting that an explorer has to get approval from some committee that hasn’t even bothered to leave their offices and do some exploration themselves.

Mount Marilyn was Mount Marilyn even before the IAU stuck their oversized noses in Jim Lovell’s business.

Robert,
I thought you were exaggerating when you said, “Somehow the IAU has expanded that responsibility to include the naming of every rock and pebble on every world in the universe.” It turns out that the IAU has a planet-sized ego.