Comments on: Xena no more!

By: Deek Peasley

Deek Peasley — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:18:46 +0000

I was very dissapointed that those boring, old woodheads at IAU didn’t choose the name Xena for the planet (yes planet) and Gabrielle for the moon. Eris is just plain boring.

Personally, I will always refer to the planet as Xena, in fact I’m constantly replacing the name Eris with Xena on all maps and documents in my computer.

As for Pluto, I still regard it as a planet too. The only reason to downgrade Pluto was probably French jealousy that the Americans discovered Pluto and the French didn’t.

By: Xena, warrior … dwarf planet? | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:01:00 +0000

[...] Tongue in cheek, he and his team nicknamed the planet Xena. When a moon was discovered, of course they named it Gabrielle. Eventually, once the orbit was properly determined, the IAU gave Mike the right to name them officially, so he went with Eris and Dysnomia. [...]

By: Jim Holder

Jim Holder — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:47:43 +0000

You might find this interesting: http://www.exospection.org

By: angela

angela — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:08:04 +0000

They should of kept it as Xena. But the lawlessness reference is fine.

By: david

david — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:43:54 +0000

you make everything so wonderful you do a very good job with everything you always be the best

By: david

david — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:41:38 +0000

there nothing about pluto in september 2006

By: Astrolink [Global Edition] » News: Eris more massive than Pluto! | Latest astronomy news in 11 languages

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:49:08 +0000

[...] orbit of its moon Dysnomia (remember when they were called Xena and Gabrielle? Man, I’m glad they changed the names). By seeing how long it takes the moon to orbit Eris, the mass of Eris can be found. Mike Brown [...]

By: HypothesisTesting

HypothesisTesting — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 16:41:20 +0000

I am just glad the IAU voted the way it did 8/06. I don’t think the names of objects are important, only insofar as they are used for identification purposes. Humans have always spent too much time projecting their narrow legends into the sky, it’ll be here long after we’re gone. Eris, Xena, whatever, just so it has a name.

Point is, no matter what the name, the important thing is that there are now 8 clear-cut planets, and the Pluto/Eris/Plutinos are KBOs .

By: /home/wonderfultoys/.plan › Twelve? Nine? Eight! Hail Eris!

/home/wonderfultoys/.plan › Twelve? Nine? Eight! Hail Eris! — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 03:39:23 +0000

[...] I’m also glad to report the mouthful of a dwarf planet, 2003UB313, was officially named Eris with its moon being named Dysnomia. Eris as you should know was the ancient Greek goddess of discord and strife. Dysnomia the goddess of lawlessness. I find the naming to be very apropos. It’s also a lot easier to type and say than 2003UB313. I want to take a moment to welcome our Erisian overlords. [...]

By: Deacon Barry

Deacon Barry — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 16:24:55 +0000

There are several craters named Herschel spread out through the Solar System. The most prominent being the one on Mimas. Mind you, there were three Herschel astronomers, so it’s only fair.
Zoot, it’s an old problem, the mining of Greek and Latin roots for new words. Classicists may howl at the bastardisation of their ancient tongues, but coiners of new words aren’t fussy about where they get them. Hollywood has even less respect.

By: Ciprianobranco

Ciprianobranco — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 15:39:29 +0000

Acho que o mais importante Ã© a descoberta e os bÃ©neficios dela provenientes e n nÃ£o o nome que sera dado a ele mitologico ou nÃ£o por mim poderia deixar Xena mesmo Ã© um nome bonito e facil de lembrar nomes dificeis Ã© falta do que fazer de cientista maluco,que deveria se preocupar com coisas mais utÃ©is de preferencia em beneficio da humanidade e de modos de preservar o meio ambiente certo.

Obs:Mando um forte abraÃ§o e muitos bjs para lucy lawless e que ela faz muito sucesso aqui no brasil.Eu mesmo sou o maior fÃ£ ok.
Sem mais….
Atenciosamente
Cipriano Branco

By: Inaugurational post « The Disparity Bit

Inaugurational post « The Disparity Bit — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 14:48:42 +0000

[...] This blog is dedicated to Eris, the new goddess rising in our skies. [...]

By: Danny

Danny — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 08:38:40 +0000

I think Eris is a good name choice, and the slight in-joke about the moon raises a smile.

As a teacher, I guess I will have to change my mnemonic from

My very excellent mother just served up nice pizza

My very excellent mother just served up Nachos

since the alternative “My very easy method just speeds up nomenclature” seems to be a bit of a mouthful

By: Nick (first time poster)

Nick (first time poster) — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 08:03:22 +0000

***The IAU has outsmarted themselves here. According to their own rules, they cannot name anything â€œErisâ€, because it is too close to the name Eros (asteroid 433). ***

You sure? Because that rule’s already been broken several times, naming two objects after the same mythological figure (not just two that are spelled similarly). For example Pluto’s satellite Nix and the asteroid 3908 Nyx, and Jupiter’s moon Europa and the asteroid 52 Europa, and Jupiter’s moon Ganymede and the asteroid 1036 Ganymed.

Anyway, Eris is a great name.

By: Onetribe - Occult & Esoteric Radio Talkshow/Podcast » Hail Eris! Hail Discordia! Hail Dysnomia?

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:20:26 +0000

[...] The planetoid formerly known as Xena (not to be confuised with Xenu), is now going to be called ‘Eris‘ after the Greek Goddess of strife & discord (Whose Roman name is Discordia.) According to both Slashdot & Boing Boing reports of an IAU article. [...]

By: Magnum

Magnum — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:56:55 +0000

About the “planet” nomenclature brouhahoowie:

The nine planets everyone knows as “planets” will become known as the ‘classical’ planets.

Other orbiting bodies will be categorised depending on certain characteristics, e.g. asteroidal belt planet, Kuiper belt planet, orbital planet (or something to describe our own moon, the Galilean satellites, Saturn’s satellites, Charon, etc), and in fact we already categorise the classical planets into rocky, gaseous, and Pluto.

Planets will be able to fit into more than one category (e.g. Charon is both a cometary belt object [Kuiper or Oort, sorryI don't know which is which] and orbital). These categories will come in even more handy as more extra-solar planets are discovered. More categories will also be needed.

By: 2020 Hindsight » It’s Eris (named for the goddess of dischord)

2020 Hindsight » It’s Eris (named for the goddess of dischord) — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:09:45 +0000

[...] Apt. But I did like Xena, too. [ via] Hm, turns out that there is a small Xena connection. These are fun days. We see a planet dwarf-planet named, a planet demoted, and we can grasp some humorous intricacies behind the naming of Eris’s moon, Dysnomia. [...]

By: Troy

Troy — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:52:42 +0000

According to Edith Hamilton’s mythology (she based it on the writings of Homer) Persephone only spent 4 months (that is 1/3 of a year) in the underworld, not 6 as mentioned by others.

I like the new name, but I think the Latin form should be used since Ceres, Pluto and the othe 8 all have the Latin form for their name. It is very fitting in how much discord this little world created in the astronomy community and everywhere else.

I think the Kuiper belt needs its own numbering system with Pluto at number 1..

By: its about time» Blog Archive » If there is nothing wrong with me…

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:00:15 +0000

[...] The artist, sorry, planet formerly known as ‘Xena’ is now ‘Eris’. And there is much humor of a geeky style to be found! Xena no more! [...]

By: Irishman

Irishman — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:29:44 +0000

Ed Minchau, after further digging, it has become clear that Eris and Dysnomia were suggested by Mike Brown and his team. Mike has said all along that Xena and Gabrielle were placeholder names, nicknames for fun, and they would not be the official names submitted. He had to wait to find out the status of Eris’s planethood to find out what naming conventions were required before he could submit the official suggestions.

http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/index.html

Eris, the largest dwarf planet known, was discovered in an ongoing survey at Palomar Observatory’s Samuel Oschin telescope by astronomers Mike Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory), and David Rabinowitz (Yale University). We officially suggested the name on 6 September 2006, and it was accepted and announced on 13 September 2006.

So Eris is official and complies with the IAU rules.

By: John doe

John doe — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:23:58 +0000

Thats Eris Goddess of Chaos and Confusion.
HAIL!! ERIS! ALL HAIL DISCORDIA!
->

By: John

John — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:59:36 +0000

I believe that the reason that UB313 (or Charon for that matter) cannot be called Persephone is that there is already an asteroid so named (399 Persephone). I guess also that means we’re not going to have any planets called Arthurdent, Mr Spock or James bond either

By: Zoot

Zoot — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:57:48 +0000

Deacon Barry > You are right. I do know of a male callisto (tv character too) but they likely made the same mistake as I did, which is to mix up greek and roman mythology.
I believe that the romans would have trouble with a female name ending with an O. Xena must be mixing greek and roman naming though?

By: The Bad Astronomer

The Bad Astronomer — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:51:39 +0000

Jeffrey: holy mackeral. I'll have a blog entry about that up in an hour or so. Wow.

By: M

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:23:32 +0000

They could’ve rejected Xena if it had ever been suggested as a name, and certainly would’ve given that Xena is a TV character not a mythological figure.

But in any case Xena and Gabriel were only ever unofficial nicknames for 2003UB313 and it’s moon, for convenience and cuteness while the IAU naming body considered the names (presumably Eris and Dysnomia) proposed by the discoverers.