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On this day back in 2006, the BBC announced that the trans-Neptunian object formerly known as Xena acquired a formal name: 136199 Eris.
Was it worth the IAU sacrificing Pluto's designation as a planet for? I don't know yet. Personally, I still call Pluto a planet.
Eris has an entry in Wikipedia:-
"Eris, formal designation 136199 Eris, is the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth-largest body known to orbit the Sun directly. It is approximately 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) in diameter and 27% more massive than Pluto."
Apparently, according to Wiki ...
- Eris has one moon, Dysnomia.
- It lies about three times as far away from the Sun as Pluto, about 96.7 AU. That's about 96.7 times further away from the Sun than the Earth.
- Apparently, Eris' discovery is what prompted the IAU to define the word "planet" for the first time, and not the fact that Pluto was an American discovery after all. What, they weren't satisfied with the fact that the Ancient Greeks had invented the word, they had to dabble in Newspeak?
- Eris' mass has been measured as 1.66 ± 0.02 × 1022 kg, 27% greater than Pluto.
- Previous namings of "planets with size deficiency" had courted controversy - Sedna, Quaoar and Haumea in particular. For a time, "Lila" and "Persephone" were also considered for Eris.
- There is more than a measure of tongue in cheek in the naming of this planet. Eris had escaped being assigned a name elsewhere in the Solar System, and Mike Brown, who named this world, had long considered Eris his "favourite goddess." Eris' naming is due, in part, to the conflict caused by the IAU's decision to oust Pluto's status as planet; and Dysnomia, named after the Greek word for "lawlessness," is a reminder that Eris was once called Xena - as the character had once been played by the actress Lucy Lawless.
Go and read the rest of the article. :)
Was it worth the IAU sacrificing Pluto's designation as a planet for? I don't know yet. Personally, I still call Pluto a planet.
Eris has an entry in Wikipedia:-
"Eris, formal designation 136199 Eris, is the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth-largest body known to orbit the Sun directly. It is approximately 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) in diameter and 27% more massive than Pluto."
Apparently, according to Wiki ...
- Eris has one moon, Dysnomia.
- It lies about three times as far away from the Sun as Pluto, about 96.7 AU. That's about 96.7 times further away from the Sun than the Earth.
- Apparently, Eris' discovery is what prompted the IAU to define the word "planet" for the first time, and not the fact that Pluto was an American discovery after all. What, they weren't satisfied with the fact that the Ancient Greeks had invented the word, they had to dabble in Newspeak?
- Eris' mass has been measured as 1.66 ± 0.02 × 1022 kg, 27% greater than Pluto.
- Previous namings of "planets with size deficiency" had courted controversy - Sedna, Quaoar and Haumea in particular. For a time, "Lila" and "Persephone" were also considered for Eris.
- There is more than a measure of tongue in cheek in the naming of this planet. Eris had escaped being assigned a name elsewhere in the Solar System, and Mike Brown, who named this world, had long considered Eris his "favourite goddess." Eris' naming is due, in part, to the conflict caused by the IAU's decision to oust Pluto's status as planet; and Dysnomia, named after the Greek word for "lawlessness," is a reminder that Eris was once called Xena - as the character had once been played by the actress Lucy Lawless.
Go and read the rest of the article. :)
