Magazine readers to name newly discovered planet

William Ronald

Explorer

• Aug 3, 2005

• #41

Joshua Dyal said:

I most humble apologize for this grevious dereliction of my duties. I have toh. I ask for the favor that you help me meet my toh.

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Do you want whine with that, Joshua?

 

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Zander

Explorer

• Aug 4, 2005

• #42

Joshua Dyal said:

I most humble apologize for this grevious dereliction of my duties. I have toh. I ask for the favor that you help me meet my toh.

Click to expand...

Your punishment for next twenty years is to break larger planetoids (up to 500km diameter) into smaller ones. Only through hard cosmic labour can you atone for your sin and reach Oort Cloud (enlightenment).

 

Bront

The man with the probe

• Aug 4, 2005

• #43

I vote for Fluffy!

 

tarchon

First Post

• Aug 4, 2005

• #44

Top 10 Worst IAU-Recognized Asteroid Names:

(16155) Buddy
(5408) The
(21000) L'Encyclopedie
(11480) Velikij Ustyug
(7707) Yes
(5180) Ohno
(3568) ASCII
(821) Fanny
(4386) Lust
(4934) Rhoneranger

I'd call it Demogorgon myself.

 

Desdichado

Hero

• Aug 4, 2005

• #45

The following image helps put some of this planet vs. minor planet, TNO, KBO or whatever else you want to call it business in a bit of perspective; it is a size comparison chart of the Moon and several TNOs, including Triton, Pluto, Charon, and this new bad boy, who gets the catchy provisional name of 2003 UB₃₁₃.

And if you're not really familiar with the controversy surrounding Pluto and the definition of a planet, the wikipedia article on the issue is fairly well done. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_Planet

 

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Desdichado

Hero

• Aug 4, 2005

• #46

Here's another cool image I found on the BBC website that also shows a size comparison of several objects in the solar system including Earth, the Moon, Mars, Pluto, Charon, Sedna, 2003 UB₃₁₃, Quaoar, etc.

I gotta say, the long-contained astronomy geek in me is really having a field day with this 2003 UB₃₁₃. Heck, the Kuiper Belt in general has been threatening to loose it for years now. I'll have to be sure and catch the official names (once granted) for 2003 UB₃₁₃, 2003 EL₆₁ and 2005 FY₉.

 

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Desdichado

Hero

• Aug 5, 2005

• #47

Joshua Dyal said:

How in the hell did I miss out on a planetoid officially being named Orcus!? Damn, that's cool! Sounds like I need to start camping on all communications from the IAU's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature again; I'm behind on my Kuiper Belt discoveries!

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Ah, phew! I just realized that Orcus is the same critter as 2004 DW--and I did know about 2004 DW from Chad Trujillo's webpage (Chad Trujillo is one of a three-man team who is credited with discovery of Orcus--and Quaoar, Sedna, 2005 FY₅ and 2003 UB₃₁₃ and pretty much the entire Kuiper Belt as a whole.)

So I feel a lot better; the only thing I really had missed was the official naming.

Also, it looks like the article posted in the first post was incorrect; the discoverer's team have already proposed a name to the IAU without reference to any magazine readers.