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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."

2 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

  2. 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?