Slashdot Mirror


"Xena" To Be Named Eris

rdwald writes, "After over a year of hanging in maybe-planet limbo, newly-classified 2003 UB313, nicknamed Xena, now has a permanent name: Eris, goddess of strife. Its moon will be named Dysnomia, after the goddess of lawlessness — in Greek mythology, Eris's daughter — certainly not a reference there... I don't think I'm alone when I say, 'Hail Eris! All hail Discordia!'" In the same IAU announcement (PDF), Pluto was given its official minor planet number: 134340.

8 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. That's no moon... by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...it's a giant golden apple!

    Kallisti!

    --
    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
    You cannot wash away blood with blood
  2. Hail Eris :) by kyknos.org · · Score: 3, Informative

    I will run my ddate programm to celebrate it :)

    Today is Boomtime, the 38th day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3172

    --

    SHE does throw dice.
  3. Re:Why not Xena? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Get the connection???

    Xena -> Lucy Lawless -> Goddess of Lawlessness

  4. Strife and Discord - Xena connection after all! by Nick+Gisburne · · Score: 4, Informative

    I suspect that the astronomer who wanted Xena and Gabrielle to be the names of the planet and its companion has still got his Xenaphile way - Strife and Discord were two very prominent characters in many of the Xena episodes. Usually associated with Ares, the God of War who of course already has his own planet, Mars (the Roman version). The trio is united!

    --
    Watch my YouTube atheist video blog (user NickGisburne2000) for arguments against religion
  5. Re:Objection! by whitehatlurker · · Score: 2, Informative
    Discordia is the Latin counterpart for the Greek Eris.

    Dysnomia is Greek, but I've forgotten the name of the Latin counterpart.

    --
    .. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
  6. Re:Objection! by Tim+the+Gecko · · Score: 2, Informative
    Moreover, the person who discovered them should have every right to name them wahtever he/she wants
    Herschel originally named Uranus "George's star" in honor of King George III of Great Britain. Let's go back to the name he wanted, and make a thousand Slashdot comments obsolete!
  7. Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia! by giblfiz · · Score: 4, Informative
    Its good to know that we Discordians have the pull in the scientific community that one would exspect us to.


    ON PRAYER
    Mal-2 was once asked by one of his Disciples if he often prayed to Eris. He replied with these words:

    No, we Erisians seldom pray, it is much too dangerous. Charles Fort has listed many factual incidences of ignorant people confronted with, say, a drought, and then praying fervently -- and then getting the entire village wiped out in a torrential flood.

            "Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. I'm mad but not ill"
     
  8. Re:First planet named after an IRC network! by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 4, Informative

    "misconfigured" is a bit inaccurate, it was a deliberate configuration to allow anyone to do whatever they wanted (open C/N lines -- Anyone could link anything they wanted as a server). Eris would have been proud.

    --
    Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx