IAU Transactions XXVA
(the following is excerpted from the book published by Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2003)
Contents
REPORTS ON ASTRONOMY (1999-2002)
Edited by
H. RICKMAN
General Secretary of the Union
(from p. 141:)
WORKING GROUP FOR PLANETARY SYSTEM NOMENCLATURE
GROUPE DE TRAVAIL POUR LA NOMENCLATURE DU SYSTEME PLANETAIRE)
CHAIRPERSON: K. Aksnes
MEMBERS: G.A. Burba, D. Cruikshank, M.Ya. Marov, B.G. Marsden, T.C. Owen, V.V. Shevchenko & B.A. Smith
CONSULTANTS: J. Blue, J. Blunck, L. Gaddis, P. Masson & M. Robinson
1. Activities in the Last Triennium
Since the IAU General Assembly in Manchester, UK in August 2000, the WGPSN has conducted its business through numerous e-mail exchanges between the members. A nomenclature workshop was held in Birmingham, Alabama, US on October 6, 2002 in connection with the annual meeting of the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences. Only half of the WG members were present but input had been received by e-mail beforehand from the other members.
2. New Nomenclature
Some 140 provisional names have been assigned to surface features on Mars, Venus, the Galilean satellites and the asteroid Eros. These and subsequent names will be published in IAU Transactions XXVB if approved by the IAU GA in Sydney in 2003.
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(from p. 142:)
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The WGPSN regrets to have to retract the lunar crater name
Eppinger, Lat. 9.4S, Long. 25.7W, 6 km diam.
named by the IAU in 1976 for Hans Eppinger Jr. (1879-1946), Czechoslovakian doctor. Recently it has been brought to the attention of the WGPSN that Dr. Eppinger, according to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. and other sources, conducted cruel experiments on prisoners at the concentration camp in Dachau. Dr. Eppinger's criminal conduct during the Second World War, despite otherwise notable contributions to medical science, disqualifies him for being honored on the Moon.
3. WGPSN Membership
With sadness we report that Merton E. Davies passed away on April 17 2001. He has been one of the most active members on the nomenclature teams ever since the creation of WGPSN in 1973. As a leading cartographer on many of NASA's planetary mission teams, he was the primary contributor of geodetic information about the planetary bodies.
In an effort to bring new expertise and more international participation to the nomenclature teams, two new members from Germany and the USA have been added to the WG, and four new members from the Netherlands, Hungary and the USA have been added to the Mercury, Mars and the Small Bodies Task Groups since the last IAU GA.
K. Aksnes
Chairperson of the Working Group
