[UA] 14 September - New Solar System Body Named Eris. Discordians Rejoice!

[Chris Cooper]

Thanks to Fiat Knox.

Cheers,

Chris.

Up until now, the solar system body known as Xena,
whose
discovery led to Pluto's being controversially
stripped of
its rank of a planet, finally got its official name
today.

This object which has been the cause of so much
consternation has officially been called "Eris", after
the
Goddess of Discord.

This is amazing news to Discordians the world over.
And it
comes on a Friday, too.

14th September is going to go down as a new sacred day
in
the Discordian calendar.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5344892.stm

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Astronomers name 'world of chaos'

The distant world whose discovery prompted leading
astronomers to demote Pluto from the rank of "planet"
has
now been given its own official name. 
Having caused so much consternation in the
International
Astronomical Union (IAU), the object has been called
Eris,
after the Greek goddess of discord. 

Eris is larger than Pluto, which put scientists in the
fix
of having to call them both planets - or neither. 

Both bodies have now been put in the new
classification of
"dwarf planets". 

Eris' discoverer, Michael Brown of the California
Institute
of Technology, told the Associated Press that 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 also caused
strife, forcing scientists to produce a strict
definition
of the term planet - and that eventually led to Pluto
losing the status it had held since its discovery in
1930. 

The need for a strict definition was deemed necessary
after
new telescope technologies began to reveal far-off
objects
that rivalled Pluto in size. 

Without a new nomenclature, these discoveries raised
the
prospect that textbooks could soon be talking about 50
or
more planets in the Solar System. 

That prospect proved too much for IAU members who took
the
historic decision last month to redefine the Solar
System. 

Eris - initially given the codename "Xena" after a TV
character - was discovered on 8 January, 2005, at the
Palomar Observatory in California. 

Its exact size is difficult to measure, being small
and
faint; Brown's team, using the Hubble telescope, found
the
object's diameter to be just 70km bigger than Pluto's.
Another team, using a radio telescope in Spain, has
measured Eris to be some 700km larger than Pluto. 

Eris has a moon, and this too now has an official
name:
Dysnomia, the daughter of Eris known as the spirit of
lawlessness. 

The "new" Solar System agreed at the IAU's General
Assembly
has eight planets - Mercury to Neptune - and at least
three
dwarf planets: Pluto, Eris and the largest asteroid in
the
Solar System, Ceres. 

Astronomers opposed to Pluto's demotion have launched
a
petition to try to get it reinstated. 



I have a damn blog. Happy now?

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