Official News - page 8

REAL LIFE NEWS: GREEK ASTRONOMERS COMPLAIN ABOUT XENA

by Hazed

When a new planet (or dwarf planet under the new rules) was discovered on the edge of our Solar System some nine billion miles from Earth, it was given the official name of 2003 UB313. Not very snappy, so the discoverers from California's Institute of Technology unofficially dubbed in Xena, after the Warrior Princess.

But Greek astronomers are not happy with this name, and do not want it to become official. They have appealed to the world's top astronomical body to maintain the tradition of naming planets after figures from Greek mythology.

Brown, who headed the team that discovered the dwarf planet, and his team had apparently chosen the nickname Xena (after the eponymous heroine of Xena: Warrior Princess) long before they actually discovered 2003 UB313. The X is apt in that it's the Roman numeral for 10 (if it hadn't been recently demoted, it would be considered the tenth planet); it's also a nod to "Planet X," the nickname astronomer Percival Lowell had given to the as-yet-undiscovered ninth planet that was later named Pluto.

Xena also has a moon which has been nicknamed - as you might be able to guess - Gabrielle, after the Warrior Princess' sidekick.

It's all very well the Greeks complaining about not using a Greek mythological name, but there aren't all that many left, which is why when another body on the edge of the Solar System was discovered, it was named Sedna, from Inuit mythology. Anyway, it's not their decision; as the discoverer, Brown gets to decide whether his unofficial name, Xena, will stick, but he doesn't have to make up his mind for another nine years - so there's plenty of time for people to lobby him!

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