Guest #1 October 4, 2005 Saw on Yahoo News today that the planet discovered on September 10th has been nicknamed "Xena" by those who found it, a team of astronomers from Cal Tech. They announced yesterday that the planet has a moon. The moon has been nicknamed "Gabrielle". These are of course the names of characters from a fantasy television program called "Xena: Warrior Princess", and are only nicknames for the objects, not their official designations. Official names are selected by the International Astronomical Union. However, they are kewl-sounding names, and are similar to other celestial object names, like the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Wouldn't it be wild if the IAU voted to accept the names as proposed by the discoverers?! It probably won't happen, though. Because it was a team working with institutional equipment rather than an solitary individual with private gear, but if I know die-hard fans, they're going to try very hard to get the names to stick... Edit to add: BTW, the next IAU conference is scheduled for August 2006 in Prague. mh ."The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trae 1 #2 October 4, 2005 in reply 2 "Saw on Yahoo News today that the planet discovered on September 10th has been nicknamed "Xena" by those who found it, a team of astronomers from Cal Tech. " ................................................... An astologer friend told me that 'Chiron' the 10th planet was discovered by a psychic some time ago but put down as out of whack quackery. new quacks claiming Gabrielle? Any mystics know what the asteroid belt was called before it got nuked? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
popsjumper 2 #3 October 4, 2005 Quote...Any mystics know what the asteroid belt was called before it got nuked? Uhhh....Garter Belt?My reality and yours are quite different. I think we're all Bozos on this bus. Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
