Far out new names
Last month Pluto, a planet, became a ‘minor planet’. Today it got it’s official minor planet designation: 134340. It’s what you’d expect to happen to Pluto if he came to Sing Sing.
Insult on top of injury: the designation was offered by the Minor Planet Center.
As I understand it the storm was brewing around whether or not 2003UB313 should be counted as a planet. This kuiper belt object was popularly known as Xena (after the warrior princess on, was it Fox?).
But now it has an official name. Seemingly fittingly, for all the trouble it stirred up, it has been named Eris, after the Greek god of strife. Eris’ moon is now called Dysnomia. (It had been Gabrielle, Xena’s sidekick.)
Thanks to JD at Evolution – the next step in Kansas for linking to the Eris thing.
Update: Eris is strife, but I missed what Dysnomia means: lawlessness, an obvious tribute to Lucy Lawless, the star of Xena. Go Warrior Princess!
Thanks to Benjamin Zimmer on Language Log (I need to go back there, lots of good stuff.)
JD2718 
NYC Educator asked:
So Pluto is no longer Pluto? That’s confusing.
That maybe explains why Pluto is just a dog while Goofy can actually talk, albeit in a very annoying fashion.
Which one wears pants?
You think that’s what makes them talk?
Pluto will always be Pluto. The attack on the ninth planet is now resulting in an ever-growing counterattack. Led by NASA astronomers, a petition is being circulated in professional circles to recind the action of kicking out of Pluto from the community of planets.
If I could fid it on the web site I would download it and have the students and teachers sign it.
There is a petition at PlutoPetition. They allow you to vote. The current score is 6620 – 2151 in favor of reverting 134340’s name. They also have a link to another article: Scientists Say Knicks No Longer a Basketball Team.
The serious petition is scientists (astronomers?) only, has a few hundred signatures, and is, afaict, unavailable.
The mass petition is available at Petition Online. They are aiming for a million signatures. I am sure if you told your students to sign, they would. But shouldn’t we be giving them both sides and letting them decide?
Ok, these folks are serious – seriously nuts. This next petition at The Petition Site has 700 signatures, some anonymous.
The 1000 signers at Please Save Pluto include those who are fine with dwarf planet status.
I predict that the Pluto supporters will, with time, disagree over immediate reversal vs. waiting over the next IAU meeting, over adding just Pluto or adding Charon or Eris as well (or Ceres), over modifying the definition of planet, or junking it altogether…
They agree that Pluto should be a planet, but where’s the science? We have the makings of a loony pressure group.
Jonathan:
I don’t believe that a vote at the end of a two week convention when the vast majority of Astronomers were home was representive of the entire community. Pluto will always be Pluto and not 134340.
As for the science behind it? How about just grandfathering Pluto? This takes the science out of the equation.