Last Friday, astronomers at Caltech declared the discovery of a 10th or 9 thplanet. I don’t know which to choose, since Pluto has been demoted. The new celestial body, which the International Astronomical Union has dubbed 2003UB313, is larger than our solar system’s smallest planet, Pluto. After over a year of hanging in maybe-planet limbo, newly-classified 2003 UB313, nicknamed Xena, now has a permanent name: Eris, goddess of strife. Its moon will be named Dysnomia, after the goddess of lawlessness — in Greek mythology, Eris’s daughter — certainly not a reference there… I don’t think In the same IAU announcement (PDF), Pluto was given its official minor planet number: 134340.
Eris is larger than Pluto, which put scientists in the fix of having to call them both planets – or neither. In mythology, Eris caused a quarrel among goddesses that sparked the Trojan War. In real life, Eris also caused strife, forcing scientists to produce a strict definition of the term planet – and that eventually led to Pluto losing the status it had held since its discovery in 1930. Now isn’t that interesting?
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