[Darkwolf377]

Don't tell Michael Moore.

[coloradan]

I read the names of these things, and thought of you.

[neverdem]

ping

[ClaudiusI]

Let's call it Reagen.

[Billthedrill]

...currently nicknamed Xena and Gabrielle...

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO NOW?!!???

[Darkwolf377]

On that same site is an interesting piece about AIDS in Zimbabwe falling due to prevention programs including...well whaddaya know!...abstinence.

[Darksheare]

Not my fault.

Joking aside, cool.
Makes me wonder what else is lurking out there, and how large.

[Allegra]

Planet Helluva X Finbar ping.

[kenth]

Malted milky goodness on a planetary scale.

[rjp2005]

At least its a Republican planet (looking at the photo there!)

UB313 - How bout UB40? Red, red wine...

[Darksheare]

What's seemingly odd is that our solar system seems to be different from others.
Seems the norm known so far is huge Jupiter plus class planets in tight close orbits.

Here our solar system is, multiple tiny planets, some gas giants, and not one but two or three debris belts plus stragglers.
SC's earlier thread on tangentially related subject:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1570230/posts

[demlosers]

What shall we call it? Minerva, Vesta, Diana, Bacchus, Juno, or Vulcan?

[presidio9]

They found another 10th planet yesterday?

[Paleo Conservative]

Here's a picture from the Hubble space telescope.

[Termite_Commander]

I say we call it Ceres.

Of course, Ceres was the goddess of motherly love and agriculture (or something), which kinda clashes with a cold, barren, icy rock floating around millions of miles away from the sun...

But in mythology, Ceres is related to Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto, so she'd fit in nicely with our current solar system.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

2003 UB313 is currently the fifteenth-largest known Solar System object, with a diameter larger than those of Pluto and the neptunian moon Triton, but smaller than those of Earth's Moon and Titan, the largest of Saturn's satellites. Other objects, besides the eight undisputed major planets, that are larger than 2003 UB313 are Jupiter's satellites Callisto, Io, Europa (not pictured) and Ganymede (the largest moon in the Solar System). Behind Pluto, the next-largest known trans-neptunian objects are 2005 FY9, with a diameter of about 1,800 km, and Sedna (1,700 km). A handful more are larger than Ceres, the largest asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. .

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

URL corrections:

http://news.nature.com/news/2006/060130/060130-7.html
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060130/multimedia/060130-7_m1.html

[ModelBreaker]

Some astronomers argue that Pluto should be stripped of its title, to become a Kuiper Belt Object like its orbital fellows. Others suggest that anything larger than Pluto found in the outskirts of the Solar System should also be called a 'planet', which would include UB313. "I'd prefer to keep Pluto as a planet, for historical reasons," says Bertoldi.

It'll have to be named "Kwanza" after the loonies start whining that Neptune, Jupiter etc are all dead white guys.

[SunkenCiv]

"To Pluto And Far Beyond" By David H. Levy, Parade, January 15, 2006 -- We don't have a dictionary definition yet that includes all the contingencies. In the wake of the new discovery, however, the International Astronomical Union has set up a group to develop a workable definition of planet. For our part, in consultation with several experienced planetary astronomers, Parade offers this definition: A planet is a body large enough that, when it formed, it condensed under its own gravity to be shaped like a sphere. It orbits a star directly and is not a moon of another planet.