DailyTech - 10th Planet Xena Larger Than Pluto

Submit News

Science 10th Planet Xena Larger Than Pluto
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - February 3, 2006 2:29 PM

33 comment(s) - last by Missing Ghost.. on Feb 4 at 9:45 PM

Potentially the 10th planet in the solar system, scientists confirm that Xena is larger than Pluto

Astronomers recently declared that Xena, the object known as 2003 UB313, is bigger than Pluto -- over 400 miles in diameter larger. Xena was originally discovered by Mike Brown, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, but no one has been able to confirm his original speculation that the object is bigger than Pluto until just recently. Due to the object's irregular orbit, ocassionally Xena's orbit is three times as far from the sun than that of Pluto.

The International Astronomical Union is still in heated debate on whether or not Xena is even a planet. The group's definition, which is currently being re-evaluated, could leave us with either eight planets (omitting Pluto), or expand it to 10 planets.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

HA HA HA...

By Connoisseur on 2/3/2006 2:39:24 PM , Rating: 2

They're calling it Xena?!? Lucy Lawless is gonna have a ball with this one... come on, given the pop culture reference couldn't they call it some other Roman god name?

RE: HA HA HA...

By nycazn79 on 2/3/2006 2:51:57 PM , Rating: 2

Looks like I have to create a new :"My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles/Pizza" for kids to memorize the planets.

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By ZmaxDP on 2/3/2006 7:19:10 PM , Rating: 4

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickled Xylaphones?

My Very Educated Mother Just Said Uncles Never Play Xylaphones?

My Vociferous Etruscan Milkmaid Javelined Seventeen Ugly Nincompoop's Ppurple Xylaphones?

I'm just sayin...

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By ElFenix on 2/4/2006 11:16:58 AM , Rating: 2

nice etruscan reference

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By shortylickens on 2/3/2006 7:27:23 PM , Rating: 2

Do you really need a cute limmerick to remember the names of the planets?

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By theslug on 2/3/2006 8:01:48 PM , Rating: 2

Actually it's not a limerick, it's a mnemonic.

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By Griswold on 2/3/2006 3:09:13 PM , Rating: 2

Thing is, the name Xena exists a little longer than the TV show... actually, longer than TV itself.

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By McTwist on 2/3/2006 3:14:33 PM , Rating: 2

Xena is just what the discoverer is calling it. He submitted an official request to the IAU but it hasn't been leaked yet. I think it is fair to assume that they won't be naming it Xena.

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By Aquila76 on 2/3/2006 3:20:32 PM , Rating: 4

I know what you mean. Why couldn't they call it something better, like I don't know, CHUCK NORRIS!

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 2/3/2006 3:21:59 PM , Rating: 5

I second teh motion to name the 10th planet Chuck Norris. We can then name the two moons Law and Order.

Mmmmmm

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By Griswold on 2/3/2006 3:30:26 PM , Rating: 2

No no no.. the two moons would be called Round and Kick. Chuck Norris style, you know.

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By aLeoN on 2/3/2006 10:04:16 PM , Rating: 2

Or Law and Order, whatever chuck wants.

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By RandomFool on 2/3/2006 5:01:32 PM , Rating: 2

That's retarded...I'm so sick of all these chuck norris jokes...

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By Griswold on 2/4/2006 11:44:15 AM , Rating: 2

I got more for you!

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Some people eat pepperoni on their pizza. Some people have canadian bacon. Chuck Norris usually has Venezuela.

and of course

Chuck Norris believes what goes around comes a roundhouse kick to the face.

To stay semi on-topic:

The government called upon Chuck Norris to destroy an asteroid the size of Texas. Chuck Norris rode on top of rocket with nothing but a fork and a cherry bomb. Needless to say the asteroid lost.

Go have a look at: http://www.4q.cc/chuck/

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By mlittl3 on 2/3/2006 5:21:14 PM , Rating: 2

Actually, IIRC, the discoverer of the planet was a Xena the warrior princess fan and actually named the planet after the character on the show. It is not coincidence or some roman god, it is actually Lucy Lawless's character.

If you look at the wikipedia entry for it, some astronomers found a moon orbiting Xena and named it Gabrielle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_UB313

Now how do you like that.

Parent

RE: HA HA HA...

By Griswold on 2/4/2006 6:29:25 PM , Rating: 2

Uhmm..

The X of Xena stands for Planet X; they had wanted more female names for astronomical bodies, and this was the closest they could come to a mythological female name beginning with X.

More like practicable than fandom. Plus, Xena is, according to your wiki link, just a nickname and not the real name they proposed to the IAU. The official provisional name is still 2003 UB313.

Parent