Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

8 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Paging Dr. Freud by russotto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wait, it's "cigar-shaped" and they're naming it after a fertility _Goddess_? Something's not right here.

    1. Re:Paging Dr. Freud by BPPG · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sometimes a cigar-shaped dwarf planet is just a cigar-shaped dwarf planet.

      --
      What's the value of information that you don't know?
  2. Yet another goddess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Yet another goddess by RiotingPacifist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      im waiting for a funny shaped cluster to be named the flying spaghetti monster, ramen

      --
      IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
  3. Re:Moreno and Brown by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  4. CSBN & WGPSN by owlstead · · Score: 3, Funny

    "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?

  5. Re:Moreno and Brown by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Moreno's reputation took a hammering too, at least in the popular press.

    I'd be interested to hear your definition of "popular press".

  6. 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...