http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/10/01/new.planet.moon.ap/index.html
Of course, it probably won’t be defined as a planet, anyway. But still fun.
Whoa, Xena and Gabrielle? That freaks me out more than anything else.
It is fun, the mystical Planet X discovered… or maybe it’s actually Planet XI, since X maybe technically was Vulcan, which apparently broke up in a near Mercurial orbit a few hundred years ago. At least, according to In Search Of…
— Alan
Yeah, I’ll show you astronomy, once you shudder AT the correlation OF THESE MODELS, AND THEIR BEHAVIOUR.
The International Astronomical Union, a group of scientists responsible for naming planets, is deciding on formal names for Xena and Gabrielle.
awwwwww
Yeah, lame. They should call them Xena and Gabrielle.
Why not just name them Batman and Robin while we’re at it. :roll:
Because Batman and Robin are gay whereas Xena and Gabrielle are merely women who just need to meet the right kind of men.
C’mon, they’ve already got a planet named after a candy bar, one named after a Disney dog, and at least one named after a car. :P
Dad, when did you know NASA and the space program we’re dead?
“Well son, it happened the day i heard they named our tenth planet after a freakin TV spin-off from Hercules.”
Cmon guys will all posterity have to endure such a horrible name? Today class we will learn about the outer planets of the solar system; can you name them? Yes, that’s right, Uranus - Neptune - Pluto - Xena.
… you know …
I just saw it. Maybe they named it “Xena” because they wanted it to start with an “X”; sort of, you know, planet “X” for the 10th planet. Invasion from planet X, ect.
Ugh. I would have much rather had a planet named “Starbucks” or “Microsoft”. Or something. If you are going to take a name from our current culture to name a planet for a god you could just call it “Money”
Hey, one of the perks of being a researching astronomer is that you get to name the things you discover. =)
No kidding. If it becomes accepted to consider those objects to be a 10th planet then the names the discovers picked should stick. Xena and Gabriel it is!
A new planet really needs to be named after a Greek or Roman god to make it part of the family. But if you really want a sci-fi/fantasy reference, then you can have it both ways with “Vulcan.”
Isn’t there an international group that determines or “approves” these things? Kinda like how they approve or disapprove of Pluto being a planet, or like the group that approves names of new chemical elements?
That would probably be the IAU.
— Alan
Yea there is, the International Astronomical Union
And it doesn’t sound probable the names of Xena and Gabrielle are going to be lifted above our perishable sublunary lives into the immortal sky either.