Posted on 04/09/2019 11:16:13 AM PDT by Red Badger
A dwarf planet discovered over a decade ago is the largest body we know of in our solar system without a proper name – but that’s about to change.
Meg Schwamb, an astronomer at Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, and her colleagues have opened a public vote to name the distant world, which is currently known only as 2007 OR10. They have selected three potential names that fit the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) rules on official names for minor planets, and will recommend the winner to the IAU, which will then select the formal name.
So why now, instead of when the researchers discovered OR10 in 2007? “You can’t name something when you don’t know anything about it,” says Schwamb. “When we found it, I knew the orbit and generally the size.” Now, after lots of follow-up observations, we know more than just that it is about 1250 kilometres across and orbits beyond Pluto in the Kuiper belt.
We know that its surface is covered in water ice, with traces of methane ice. When sunlight hits the methane ice, it turns red, which may be why OR10 is one of the reddest rocks in the Kuiper belt. The water ice may have welled up from deep inside OR10 sometime in its past through cryovolcanism.
“It went from being this point of light to a whole world,” says Schwamb. And a world must have a name. The three names Schwamb and her colleagues have proposed are Gonggong, a Chinese water god who caused floods and chaos, Holle, a winter spirit from European folk tales who is associated with fertility and rebirth, and Vili, a Nordic god and brother of Odin. The vote is now open to the public.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Viagra......................
OooEeeOooAaaAaaTingTangWallaWallaBingBang
Hermey
Cuz it’s a gender confused planet
Illudium Q-36
World of Hurt
A future prison planet
Obama. Since everything in the universe revolves around him.
= = =
He already thought he had a planet named after him, in our own Solar System even.
Give it my ex-wife’s name. She was cold in the dark too.
Munchkinland
Athena — after the Greek goddess of knowledge.
How about Horus?................
Planety Mc Planet face.
I’ll call it Democrat...since both are so far out...
Thanks Red Badger.
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
| Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar · | ||
When were the planets in our solar system named and who named them?
Bizarro World
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.