This artist's concept, released by NASA, shows the planet catalogued as 2003UB313 (nicknamed "Xena") which received an official name -- Eris -- on Wednesday. Associated Press photo by NASA
Posted on 09/13/2006 7:57:54 PM PDT by TFFKAMM
A distant, icy rock whose discovery shook up the solar system and led to Pluto's planetary demise has been given a name: Eris.
The christening of Eris, named after the Greek goddess of chaos and strife, was announced by the International Astronomical Union on Wednesday. Weeks earlier, the professional astronomers' group stripped Pluto of its planethood under new controversial guidelines.
Since its discovery last year, Eris, which had been known as 2003 UB313, ignited a debate about what constitutes a planet.
Astronomers were split over how to classify the object because there was no universal definition. Some argued it should be welcomed as the 10th planet since it was larger than Pluto, but others felt Pluto was not a full-fledged planet.
After much bickering, astronomers last month voted to shrink the solar system to eight planets, downgrading Pluto to a "dwarf planet," a category that also includes Eris and the asteroid Ceres.
Eris' discoverer, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, said the name was an obvious choice, calling it "too perfect to resist."
In mythology, Eris caused a quarrel among goddesses that sparked the Trojan War. In real life, Eris forced scientists to define a planet that eventually led to Pluto getting the boot. Soon after Pluto's dismissal from the planet club, hundreds of scientists circulated a petition protesting the decision.
Eris' moon also received a formal name: Dysnomia, the daughter of Eris known as the spirit of lawlessness.
Eris, which measures about 70 miles wider than Pluto, is the farthest known object in the solar system at 9 billion miles away from sun. It is also the third brightest object located in the Kuiper belt, a disc of icy debris beyond the orbit of Neptune...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This artist's concept, released by NASA, shows the planet catalogued as 2003UB313 (nicknamed "Xena") which received an official name -- Eris -- on Wednesday. Associated Press photo by NASA
Seems a fitting choice of names just for the havoc wreaked upon classrooms by Pluto's demotion let alone for the chaos of our antinomian age.
Planetary Ping
And just where is the line between the largest dwarf planet and the smallest regular planet? Why do I feel like this is the freak show in a carnival? "See the worlds tallest midget!"
(Pluto was robbed, dammit!) ;-)
They re-named your planet!
I thought Eris always hung out with Aries--aka Mars.
She's left him, then?
Ping
Well, since Pluto *is* the smallest regular planet... :-) Or at least it always will be to me.
Strife, OK. But Chaos is what precedes Erebus, Night, and then Day. Hesiod says, "first Chaos came to be."
Too bad. They should have given it a name that kids could have had fun with, like they (we) do with "Uranus". Coulda named it "Klingon" to give that old joke a little boost.
Is this like "home of the world's smallest big-screen TV?"
Has anyone let Mickey know that Pluto is now a Dwarf? I hear Doc and Sleepy are OK with it but Happy is now Grumpy about it. This is getting down right Goofy if you ask me.
Eris threw the golden apple into a party (at which She had not been invited!) The apple said "For the Fairest!". Juno, Minerva and Venus all claimed it. Jupiter refused to arbite (being wise) but a young man, Paris agreed to be their judge. Each offered him appropriate bribes, but what won his heart was the promise of Venus to give him the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife.
That was Helen, sister to Castor and Pollux, who all the kings of Greece had agreed to defend. Hers was the face that launched a thousand ships.
From that comes a measure of beauty. A millihelen is beauty enough to launch one ship....
This "planet" should be the permanent home of the Democratic National Convention. The 'toon can hold court in the red light district on its "moon."
"In mythology, Eris caused a quarrel among goddesses that sparked the Trojan War. In real life, Eris forced scientists to define a planet that eventually led to Pluto getting the boot. Soon after Pluto's dismissal from the planet club, hundreds of scientists circulated a petition protesting the decision."
doesn't klingon circle uranus?
Nicely done :)
I think the farthest planet from the sun should be called "the left wing" or maybe "Howard Dean"
Excellent ... did not know that even if I remember the story. :)
LOL.
I thought "dwarf" was a bad word now.
"After much bickering, astronomers last month voted to shrink the solar system to eight planets,"
The solar system includes everything that orbits the sun, including Pluto. They did not "shrink" the solar system, they merely renamed some of the objects that make it up.
Maybe they should have talked with an astronomer.
Is Eris spherical?
You know, considering it's cold, desolate, and barren, they should've called it Gertrude Stein.
This is apparently the qualifications for dwarf planet
From wiki
The resolution describes a dwarf planet as an object that:
* Is in orbit around the Sun
* Has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape
* Has not "cleared the neighbourhood" around its orbit
* Is not a satellite of a planet, or other nonstellar body
This is the qualifier the separates dwarf planets from the standard planets.
* Has not "cleared the neighbourhood" around its orbit
There are a LOT of other bodies around Ceres (Asteroid Belt), Pluto (plutinos and twotino bodies / KBO's), and Eris (Scattered Disk Objects / Kupier Belt Objects
Dumb astronomers. They forgot. Now they'll have to change their new classification to "stature-challenged planet".
Well, I'll be damned.
They're probably waiting for one with just one moon, to name after me and Gabrielle.
Named after the Greek goddess of chaos and strife? They named it - Congress?
A dwarf planet, by the new definition, is large enough for gravity to force it to a sphere.
Overlooked by many is Ceres, formerly an asteroid, is now also a dwarf planet.
Ceres is the G-ddess of grains, and after Her is named our breakfast Cereal. Extra points if anyone can come up with the connection between Ceres and Pluto (without searching the Internet!)
|
Name |
Category |
|
2005 FY9 ("Easterbunny") |
|
|
2003 EL61 ("Santa") |
|
Ping to RadioAstronomer as well ... he knows this stuff a lot better than anyone else here.
HMMM. What about the rings around Saturn? Those are still in the neighborhood...
Wasn't Ceres aka Demeter who was the wife of Persephone who was the wife of Pluto after he abducted her?
Criminy ... now I know where soap opera writers got their plot themes .... greek/roman mythology.
Of course the Centaurs and Trojan asteroids could topple Saturn and Jupiter to dwarf planets using these rulings as well since those are "in the neighborhood" and not satellites of those respective planets.
Paris got dragged into the apple fiasco...then Helen met Paris. We all know what happened next.
Eris is quite a troublemaker.
Here are some more possible dwarf planets ... all those in blue are at least as big as Ceres.
It is all so confusing... I want Pluto back where it belongs!
It were no shame to fight for one as fair as she.
Bingo! You get the no-prize, a ticket to Japanese Theater, and I don't mean Kabuki!
A Noh Prize!
I was teaching my kids Roman Mythology, which offended my exwife. Her lawyer wanted me directed to not do it anymore, as "noone believes in that."
The judge asked me to explain:
"I am confused. As I came in, I saw on top of the courthouse a lady with a blindfold, a sword, and scales, standing on a book of Law. That is the Roman G-ddess Justicia. Is Justice not honored in this court?"
Long silence. Judge says "I didn't know that."
An Attorney just behind him says "If you went to a good school, you would know these things."
Ouch!
Here's a key table as well.
|
Planetary discriminants |
|||
|
Body |
Mass (ME*) |
Λ/ΛE** |
µ*** |
|
0.055 |
0.0126 |
9.1×104 |
|
|
0.815 |
1.08 |
1.35×106 |
|
|
1.00 |
1.00 |
1.7×106 |
|
|
0.107 |
0.0061 |
1.8×105 |
|
|
317.7 |
8510 |
6.25×105 |
|
|
95.2 |
308 |
1.9×105 |
|
|
14.5 |
2.51 |
2.9×104 |
|
|
17.1 |
1.79 |
2.4×104 |
|
|
1.5×10−4 |
8.7×10−9 |
0.33 |
|
|
0.0022 |
1.95×10−8 |
0.077 |
|
|
0.005 |
3.5×10−8 |
0.10 |
|
*ME in Earth masses.
**Λ/ΛE = M2/P, in Earth masses squared per year.
***µ = M/m, where M is the mass of the body, and m is the aggregate mass of all the other bodies that share its orbital zone.
Basically the major planets all outweigh their neighbors to the order of 20,000+ to millions of times the other aggregate masses around them .... the minors are less than everything around them.
All hail Discordia...
--tkoed
For the record, all hail Discordia!
The day after the decision to make a new category of "dwarf planets," the New York Times editorial page stated, "[o]ur only regret is that the astronomers chose the name 'dwarf planets' for Pluto's new category instead of abandoning the word entirely when discussing these less-than-planetary bodies."
On the surface, it appears they are objecting to the word "planet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they also objected to the "dwarf" moniker as well.
Remember that this is the one that IS going to hit the Earth's oceans as mentioned in the Bible (Revelations).
What word is that in Greek?
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