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IAU Names Fifth Dwarf Planet Haumea
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."
Wait, it's "cigar-shaped" and they're naming it after a fertility _Goddess_? Something's not right here.
Ok, great victory for believers in Hawaiian mythology. I'm waiting for the day when they finally run out of religious mythologies and have to allow names like Xena for real. Although there are so many religions around that by that time Xena will probably be seen as an ancient mythological figure.
Not really. Moreno had also been looking at the object for a while, they only looked at Brown's observing logs the day before their announcement, to check whether they were actually looking at the same object as Brown. Brown didn't follow the standard procedure for claiming discovery of a minor planet (but had published an abstract signifying their intention to announce the discovery), which left the door open for Moreno to get in first. If Brown had followed procedure, there would have been no problem.
It was very impolite of Moreno though. The polite action would have been for Moreno to (1) contact Brown directly, rather than googling through his observing logs, and (2) come to a friendly agreement on who gets to claim the discovery. The astronomy community is (or was, until this event) very good natured. That good nature was probably the biggest casualty in all of this. But Moreno's reputation took a hammering too, at least in the popular press.
"The decision was made after discussions by members of the International Astronomical Union's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN) and the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)"
Surprisingly interesting names, but should bodies that name themselves CSBN and WGPSN really be in charge of naming other bodies?
Moreno's reputation took a hammering too, at least in the popular press.
I'd be interested to hear your definition of "popular press".
Haumea is the pronunciation of homo which means gay. This kind of spelling is often used at a hugely popular blog called Geenstijl.nl...
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.
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
This is getting complicated. Before Pluto got demoted our 3rd graders only had to remember earth plus 8 stereotypical Roman gods. Now we've got Hawaiin fertility goddesses, Pacific islander super-deities, Eskimo ice-queens, and TV warrior princesses. Curse they IAU! When will the insanity stop?
Obviously something has to be done. Our preconceived notions about the solar system are collapsing around us. There is only one logical response:
It'll have to go.
Blow everything up except the sun, the original nine planets, and their moons...except Phobos. Blow Phobos up, as well. Too many demon invasions from that place. We'll join the ranks of the people of Krikkit as a civillization that defined its own universe, and our third graders can go back to embarrassing educated adults on television. Do it for the children.