Dwarf planet Xena renamed Eris


This 2018 video says about itself:

Eris: The Goddess of Discord and Strife – Mythology Dictionary

Eris is the Greek goddess of strife and discord. Her name is the equivalent of Latin Discordia, which means “discord”. Eris’ Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia.

From RedOrbit:

LOS ANGELES – A distant, icy rock whose discovery shook up the solar system and led to Pluto’s planetary demise has been given a name: Eris.

The christening of Eris, named after the Greek goddess of chaos and strife, was announced by the International Astronomical Union on Wednesday.

Kuiper belt objects

Weeks earlier, the professional astronomers’ group stripped Pluto of its planethood under new controversial guidelines.

Since its discovery last year, Eris, which had been known as 2003 UB313, ignited a debate about what constitutes a planet.

Astronomers were split over how to classify the object because there was no universal definition.

Some argued it should be welcomed as the 10th planet since it was larger than Pluto, but others felt Pluto was not a full-fledged planet.

After much bickering, astronomers last month voted to shrink the solar system to eight planets, downgrading Pluto to a “dwarf planet,” a category that also includes Eris and the asteroid Ceres.

Eris’ discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, said the name was an obvious choice, calling it “too perfect to resist.”

In mythology, Eris caused a quarrel among goddesses that sparked the Trojan War.

In real life, Eris forced scientists to define a planet that eventually led to Pluto getting the boot.

Soon after Pluto’s dismissal from the planet club, hundreds of scientists circulated a petition protesting the decision.

Eris’ moon also received a formal name: Dysnomia, the daughter of Eris known as the spirit of lawlessness.

Eris, which measures about 70 miles wider than Pluto, is the farthest known object in the solar system at 9 billion miles away from the sun.

It is also the third brightest object located in the Kuiper belt, a disc of icy debris beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Eris had been without a formal name while astronomers grappled over its status.

Brown nicknamed it “Xena” after the fictional warrior princess pending an official designation.

He admits the new name will take some getting used to.

“It’s a little sad to see Xena go away,” he said.

This video is called XENA AND GABRIELLE – THE HUGS AND KISSES.

Eris-Xena’s moon was called ‘Gabrielle’, before being called Dysnomia.

Pluto’s demotion ignores astronomical history. Review of asteroid literature suggests voting isn’t right way to define planetary status, by Tom Siegfried, 1:08pm, May 25, 2018.

Dwarf ‘sub-planet’ named after Polynesian god: here.

Andromeda galaxy three times bigger than thought: here.

Exoplanet Gliese 581 c discovered: here.

Scientists investigating the growing number of extra-solar planets, or exoplanets, have concluded that the planet Gliese 581 d is the first to be confirmed to have a possibility of sustaining Earth-like life. A recent study by a team of researchers led by Robin Wordsworth shows that Gliese 581 d is the first rocky planet discovered that potentially has atmospheric conditions allowing for liquid water on its surface: here.

NASA Craft Yields New Discoveries About Jupiter: here.

Iapetus has a dirty face, and it’s getting dirtier every day. That’s the conclusion of astronomers studying Saturn‘s oddest moon, a sort of yin-yang symbol in space that’s almost pitch black on one side and icy bright on the other: here.

ScienceDaily (July 29, 2012) — “We see landslides everywhere in the solar system,” says Kelsi Singer, graduate student in earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, “but Saturn’s icy moon Iapetus has more giant landslides than any body other than Mars”: here.

Neptune ‘dead zones’ hold more rocks than asteroid belt: here.

Hubble’s Neptune anniversary pictures: here.

30 thoughts on “Dwarf planet Xena renamed Eris

  1. Jun 14, 2:03 PM EDT

    Pluto isn’t even largest dwarf planet

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Pity poor Pluto, the puny former planet is facing yet another indignity. Demoted from planethood a year ago into a new category of dwarf planet, it now turns out that it isn’t even the biggest one of those.

    “This is sort of Pluto’s last stand,” joked Emily L. Schaller of California Institute of Technology, co-author of a report in Thursday’s issue of the journal Science.

    When the International Astronomical Union redefined planets last year, it created the new subcategory dwarf planets, and Pluto was thought to be the largest in that group.

    Planetary astronomy professor Michael E. Brown and graduate student Schaller found otherwise while studying Dysnomia, the moon of Eris, another dwarf planet.

    Using the Keck Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope they were able to calculate the movement of Dysnomia and, with that information, calculate the mass of Eris at 27 percent more than Pluto. But even though Eris tops Pluto, Earth is still 360 times more massive.

    “Pluto and Eris are essentially twins – except that Eris is slightly the pudgier of the two,” Brown said.

    Eris, by the way, is named for the Greek goddess of, among other things, rivalry.

    On the Net:

    Science: http://www.sciencemag.org

    © 2007 The Associated Press.

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