<p>I will just cite this from Wikipedia:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On their discovery, the planets were designated PSR 1257+12 A, B, and C, ordered by increasing distance. They were discovered before the convention that extrasolar planets receive designations consisting of the star's name followed by lower-case Roman letters starting from &quot;b&quot;, in order of discovery, was established. However, they are listed under the latter convention on astronomical databases such as SIMBAD and the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia, with A becoming b, B becoming c, and C becoming d.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a nutshell, this is the older nomenclature still kept because of historical reasons.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-28T15:39:49.957Z
2020-10-28T15:39:49.957Z
User123
<p>The pulsar PSR B1257+12 has three planets. Most triple-planet system have designation <strong>foo b, foo c, and foo d</strong>. However, I noticed that the three planets of this pulsar (PSR B1257+12) have a designation of <strong>A, B, and C</strong> as well as <strong>b, c, and d</strong>. Why did this naming convention deviate from the standard?</p>

<exoplanet><pulsar><naming>
Why do some pulsar planets have designations with a capital letter at the end?
WarpPrime
# Why do some pulsar planets have designations with a capital letter at the end?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-10-28)

The pulsar PSR B1257+12 has three planets. Most triple-planet system have designation **foo b, foo c, and foo d**. However, I noticed that the three planets of this pulsar (PSR B1257+12) have a designation of **A, B, and C** as well as **b, c, and d**. Why did this naming convention deviate from the standard?

**Tags:** exoplanet, pulsar, naming


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-10-28. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

I will just cite this from Wikipedia:

> On their discovery, the planets were designated PSR 1257+12 A, B, and C, ordered by increasing distance. They were discovered before the convention that extrasolar planets receive designations consisting of the star's name followed by lower-case Roman letters starting from "b", in order of discovery, was established. However, they are listed under the latter convention on astronomical databases such as SIMBAD and the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia, with A becoming b, B becoming c, and C becoming d.

In a nutshell, this is the older nomenclature still kept because of historical reasons.


---

