Tenth planet, again!

[cosmolinguist]

When I wrote about Sedna, I complained "is it not politically correct to name planets only after Roman gods any more?" (Sedna is the name of the Inuit goddess of the sea, or something like that). Not that I want to show Roman favoritism, but some consistency would be nice.

A couple of days ago, I told Andrew "They found another planet. Bigger than Pluto!"

"Oh?" he said. "Does it have a name yet?"

I looked through the article. "Its name is ... 2003 UB₃₁₃."

"That's a stupid name!" he declared, and I must say I agree.

Today I tell him, "They're calling it Xena!"

"After the warrior princess?" he asks.

I check. It seems ... oh no ... "The object has unofficially been named Xena, after the TV series starring Lucy Lawless. 'We have always wanted to name something Xena,' said Michael Brown, a member of the team that made the discovery".

It may be bigger than Pluto, but it's also about twice as far away ...for now, anyway. It's 97 AUs (astronomical units; one AU is the distance from the Sun to the Earth) away at the moment, but its orbit varies even more wildly than Pluto's; at its closest it's only 35 AUs from the Sun (Pluto ranges between 29 and 49.5 AUs). Its orbit is also at a steeper angle to that of the other eight planets than Pluto's is. The inclination of its orbit is responsible for it going unnoticed until now, as most searches for large outer solar system objects concentrate on the ecliptic plane, in which most solar system material is found.

So I'm hoping they'll stop trying to call it the tenth planet, or at least not give it such a stupid name. "We have always wanted to name something Xena," indeed! The prospect of aming potential planets after TV shows is enough to keep me from complaining about rogue names like Sedna. Or even Quaoar.

Comments

[classytart.livejournal.com]

They've run out of Romans, apparently - used them all up on comets.

I'm still holding out for Rupert. But then I'm a big nerd.

[cosmolinguist]

Rupert is a good name.

I told Andrew of your choice and he said, "But she's probably saying that because of Rupert Everett. Or Rupert the Bear. I hope it's Rupert the Bear, because Rupert the Bear is better than Rupert Everett."

[classytart.livejournal.com]

Nope. He's wrong on both counts. Actually I hate Rupert the bear. Rupert Everett is an idiot, but a dreadfully handsome one when in Ocsar Wilde adaptations.

Any more guesses?

[cosmolinguist]

It better not be Rupert Murdoch!

[classytart.livejournal.com]

Ha! No.

It's from The Hitchickers' Guide. Mostly Harmless.

[cosmolinguist]

Andrew says "Oh, of course! The parrot."

[classytart.livejournal.com]

More Tricia McMillan, the American who went back for her bag. But yes.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

What about Discordia?

[classytart.livejournal.com]

Probably not. But I can't see them wanting one.

It's like when people say "the body of a Greek God" - they tend to mean the young looking, muscular ones.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I think Discordia would be a fine name for a planet of which people can't agree on it's status.

->For the Furthest<-

[internetsdairy.livejournal.com]

"Xena can't fly!"
"I'm not Xena. I'm Lucy Lawless."

[soltice.livejournal.com]

I wonder why no one has asked Lucy Lawless as to the debate on if it's a planet or an asteroid....

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

I still maintain, that as Douglas Adams predicted the existance of this planet, we should go with what he named it... Rupert.

That said, what is Neptune's AU range (I still prefer going with light minutes, but maybe that's just me)? We all know that Pluto is alternatively the 8th or 9th planet from the sun... Does Rupert just switch 9th and 10th? or might it go down to 8th as well?

[cosmolinguist]

Neptune's 30 AU (I'm giving you these units of measurement only because it's what I saw when I looked it up). So Rupert won't touch it.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

So Neptune switches between 8 and 9, Rupert between 9 and 10, and Pluto between 8 and 10? cool.

[cosmolinguist]

I don't think Pluto is 10th ... I guess it depends on what part of its orbit it's at when Rupert is at what part of its orbit... Thinking about this makes my head hurt.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Well if Rupert can venture into 9th, then surely Pluto must venture into 10th, no?

[classytart.livejournal.com]

Rupert can't necessarily come to 9th, though - he might be at his closest ebb when Pluto is at its closest ebb, thus never actually getting nearer to the sun than Pluto.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Pluto and Rupert both have differently long years. It takes one longer to orbit the sun than the other. As such, if we stretch the timeline over a long enough period of time, there must come a point where Rupert is at it's near ebb, and Pluto at it's most distant flow.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Astronomers have found a new world orbiting the Sun. The giant lump of rock and ice is larger than the planet Pluto and is now the farthest known object in the solar system.

Ahhh the Guardian, wherefore do you have factcheckers?

Rupert is not the farthest known object in the solar system. It is a Kupier belt object (planet or no). That means it's WITHIN the kupier belt. Which means that there are other bits of material (asteroids, etc...) which are further away than it is.

And that's not even counting meteors which (depending on one's definition of the solar system) are much much further away, but still dependant on the sun's gravity.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, I know, it's dumb; obviously the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud (which may or may not count, as you say) sort of preclude there being a specific "furthest" object ... I wonder what they mean by "known", though: this might be the furthest one they've measured or paid attention to, specifically. I dunno, and am probably wrong as I'm no astronomer.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Regardless of if there can be a specific 'furthest' object, there can certainly be objects that arn't the furthest.

Earth, for one, isn't the furthest. And neither is Rupert.

But I suppose this is what you get from popular leftist publications. =P

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, they're all humanities liberal-arts people and no scientists. :-)

[kmusser]

Like classytart said they've run out of Roman Gods :-)

If they follow the naming conventions that they have been using objects with orbits similar to Pluto are supposed to be named after Gods of the Underworld or Gods of Creation from other pantheons, which is where Sedna, Quaoar, and Orcus have come from.

[cosmolinguist]

That's true; I know stuff in the asteroid belt ended up with Roman names: Juno, Eros, etc. They squandered them all already! Stupid astronomers. But I guess you have a point about that gods of the underworld thing, which for some reason hadn't occurred to me. I hope that means Xena's out.

[kmusser]

I've confirmed that the real name will not be Xena *grin* Discovers said they've submitted a name and that it's from a pantheon they haven't used yet. Mentioned that they really would've like to call it Persephone (because it spends half it's time in the same orbit as Pluto and half it's time further out) but that was taken by an asteroid.

[the-mel.livejournal.com]

planet xena sounds great to me! ayayayayayay! ;)

[chuck-lw.livejournal.com]

It's only a matter of time before they name one "Britney."

Or maybe there's another possibility. Have you heard of the International Star Registry? (I know, they're not legit, but...) If they find more thingies floating out there, maybe someone will set up a Kuiper Belt Object registry so people can attach their names to their own KBO. Then madness will ensue.

[ivana-duboise.livejournal.com]

Have I pointed you to Slacker Astronomy (http://www.slackerastronomy.org/) yet?

[cosmolinguist]

You have, actually, but I'd forgotten about it. Thanks for doing so again.