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IAU Names Fifth Dwarf Planet Haumea

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-was-rooting-for-slash-and-dot dept.

Kligat writes "The International Astronomical Union has renamed the dwarf planet Haumea and its two moons Hi'iaka and Namaka, after the Hawaiian fertility goddess, the patron goddess of Hawaii, and a water spirit. The cigar-shaped body is speculated to have resulted from its short rotational period of only four hours. Holding up the reclassification of the body as a dwarf planet was a dispute over its discovery between the groups of José Luis Ortiz Moreno and Michael E. Brown."

4 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. In Dutch... by Arrawa · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Haumea is the pronunciation of homo which means gay. This kind of spelling is often used at a hugely popular blog called Geenstijl.nl...

  2. Not Gravitationally Rounded by Steve+Hosgood · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I thought the definition of a Dwarf Planet was that it was big enough to be rounded by its own gravity, but not big enough to have swept its orbit clear of other debris?

    If it is indeed cigar shape, it would appear to fail the first of these criteria.

  3. Re:Yet another goddess by somersault · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't you think a name like Jesus at least deserves a moon? An asteroid would be Baby Jesus.

    --
    which is totally what she said
  4. Dwarf Planets should be named after Dwarves by billstewart · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If they're going to call them dwarf planets, they should name them after dwarves.

    Probably some of the dwarves in Norse mythology have names? But certainly there's all the Tolkein dwarves, and the Disney dwarfs.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks