A Nomenclature For Individual Exocomets
With recent observational advancements, exocomet studies have entered a new era: we have moved from an epoch where exocomets’ signatures were analysed to identify their true nature to a new epoch where individual exocomets’ detections are studied in detail to characterise the observed bodies.
In this context, as with other astronomical objects such as exoplanets and minor bodies in the solar system, a nomenclature system is needed to uniquely identify any observed exocometary body. Here, after outlining the purpose of a nomenclature and its required characteristics, we review the information on exocomets that can be included in the nomenclature.
Finally, we propose an exocomet nomenclature scheme to identify the individual exocomets that have been discovered or yet to be discovered. Examples of nomenclature names of a few archetypal exocomets are provided.
Alain Lecavelier des Etangs, Paul A. Strøm, Darryl Z. Seligman
Comments: 10 pages, 1 figure. Published in Space Science Reviews on January 20, 2026. Chapter written for the the workshop ‘Exocomets: Bridging our Understanding of Minor Bodies in Solar and Exoplanetary Systems’ (July 2024), at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern. Available https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-025-01261-8
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2601.15176 [astro-ph.EP](or arXiv:2601.15176v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.15176
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Journal reference: Space Sci Rev 222, 12 (2026)
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-025-01261-8
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Submission history
From: Darryl Seligman
[v1] Wed, 21 Jan 2026 16:53:22 UTC (119 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.15176
Astrobiology, Astronomy,
