Breaking News - Xena officially 'Eris'

UB 313 (unofficially Xena) has now been officially named by the IAU as "Eris".

Eris also has a satellite - Dysnomia.

Dave

UB 313 (unofficially Xena) has now been officially named by the IAU as "Eris".

Dam spiders get everywhere!

Oh other Eris...

I see they are keeping a theme with these plutonian thingies in naming them after cartoon characters: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Eris_in_Sinbad.jpg

Hmmm .... zena was a much more catchy name .... would have prefered it to become the official name

You would wonder ....why bother?

There is a very strange cohort of "word-smiths" in the IAU at the moment...next thing they will rename Earth because soil is also called Earth..or something equally daft.

Peter.

There is a very strange cohort of "word-smiths" in the IAU at the moment...next thing they will rename Earth because soil is also called Earth..or something equally daft.

Peter - the IAU didn't determinethe name. The discoverer entered a citation which the IAU have to accept (unless it is offensive).

A pity, Xena was a great name for it.