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TFW you live in a galaxy-spanning super civilization but your planet is dying because its ID in the central database has a UUID collision with another planet 80000 light years away.
Well, the UUIDs for almost everything we use are galaxy-scale already. Astronomers just need to up those random letters a bit.
How difficult would it be for every single thing that can be cataloged and named in the known universe to have a sufficiently unique UUID?
IDK, it’s fun to think about because maybe the 128 bit UUID is still being used due to 40k-like levels of technical debt, and also weird edge cases that cause ID explosion. Like maybe the 4000 year old spec says we need to track micrometeoroids too, sorry.
Manufacturers of computer monitors be like:
I believe that’s intended, so it’s harder for you to compare models from different retailers. At least that’s how it works for mattresses.
Sony with their headphones be like:
Just slap a number on it we’ll name it when it matters
And then someone decides to name a random planet simply “Steve”
STEEEEEEEVE!
O7
There are so many objects in the sky that you run out of normal names very quickly.
I just discovered a new planet! Now I need to think if a good name for it sets cat down on keyboard
After the generations of repeated offence to the Betelgeusish by earthlings trying to pronounce the native name for their home star, it’s probably for the best.
“I seem to be having this tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle”
P4X-639.
In the middle of my backswing?!
Why not Zoidhuirorgerg?
Jokes aside, I’m sure there is SOME method for how they name what they find; I highly doubt they just use a random number generator. Does anyone here know what that process is?
Cat walking across keyboards at the wrong time of a group chat
To be fair, we don’t have any pics of exoplanets. Technically, we could measure their surface temperature and basic chemistry through spectroscoopy but I don’t think they reflect enough photons for our equipment. They are usually identified by dimming their star slightly when passing in front of it. This can give an estimated size and distance from their star. And maybe atmosphere composition if it refracts! So they’re not naming this kind of picture but a bunch of data with big error bars.
