Thursday, September 14, 2006

Xena -> Eris

In case you hadn't heard, the IAU finally announced the new official name of 2003 UB313, popularly known as "Xena." It's now Eris, named for the Greek goddess of strife and discord.

Eris's moon, once known as "Gabrielle," is now Dysnomia, named for the goddess of lawlessness (a deliberate reference to actress Lucy Lawless).

And the IAU also gave Eris and Pluto new minor-body numbers, just like all the asteroids. They also reiterated Pluto, Eris, and Ceres to be dwarf planets, along with a brief mention of "two other new potential dwarf-planet candidates." I'm guessing they're referring to two of the KBOs which are larger than Ceres, which are "Santa," "Easterbunny," Sedna, etc. etc. etc.

I still want to call it Rupert, though.

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