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Tag-Archive for "pluto"

Goodbye, Xena; welcome, Eris Sep 15

The planet that started the row which ended with Pluto’s demotion has been named. It’s lost its Warrior Princess nickname Xena and is called Eris after – rather suitably – the Greek god of discord and strife. It’s moon has also been aptly christened Dysnomia after Eris’s daughter, a “demon spirit of Lawlessness”.

I am, of course, disappointed that the IAU didn’t call it Mondas.

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523.482 Aug 25

It’s the Dewey Decimal Classification number for Pluto, sitting happily in the “Planets of the Solar System” schedule. So there are more implications of Pluto being demoted to dwarf planet. The folks are Dewey Towers have noticed:

We’re still looking at what this means for 523.4 Planets of solar system and for 523.48 Trans-Uranian planets in Dewey. In particular, we will need to decide exactly where Charon and other KBOs (“Plutonian objects”) go in the classification, and whether “Trans-Uranian planets” is still the best caption.

Of course, Trans-Uranic Heavy Planets may not be used where there is life.