Archives for the 'Tenth Planet' Category
Still no status on the planet name
Published on 20 Jan 2006 at 7:42 pm.
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The IAU (International Astronomical Union) has still not given a decision or either the planet’s status (whether or not it can be called a planet) or its name (if it is going to be considered a planet).
The IAU has established a working group of people to define the minimum size for a planet. Once […]
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Planetary status decision rumor
Published on 1 Oct 2005 at 4:37 pm.
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Rumor has it that the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has either made a decision (or will soon) as to whether or not the tenth planet will really be classified as a planet or not. News to follow as soon as anything is confirmed.
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The tenth planet has a moon!
Published on 1 Oct 2005 at 4:33 pm.
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The original discoverers of the tenth planet, along with astronomers at the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea took a look at the 10th planet with a new instrument that allows them to see details as precise as those seen from the Hubble Space Telescope. The images quickly revealed that it has a faint moon in […]
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Measuring the size again at end of August
Published on 10 Aug 2005 at 4:17 pm.
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The Spitzer Science Center will run another calculation at the end of August to try to get a better determination of the size of 2003 UB313. Some problems encountered earlier with the telescope have been worked on, and the team hopes to get a clearer picture with the new test.
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Update on Tenth Planet’s name
Published on 10 Aug 2005 at 4:13 pm.
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It looks highly likely that the tenth planet will not be named Xena. The IAU is the group responsible for approving astronomical names and they have suggested that the name should follow in the Greco-Roman tradition that the previous planets used. Since Xena does not fall into the Greco-Roman naming structure, the discoverers […]
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How big is the tenth planet?
Published on 31 Jul 2005 at 3:05 pm.
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2003 UB313, or Xena, is currently thought to be about 2,000 miles across, which is a good bit bigger than Pluto. Pluto is only 1,450 miles across. However, it may take another 6 months to determine the exact size of Xena.
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How cold is the tenth planet?
Published on 31 Jul 2005 at 3:03 pm.
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At its far distance from the sun, an average day’s temperature would be somewhere around minus 400 degrees F on Xena. Might be a great place to hold the next Winter Olympics?
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How long is Xena’s year?
Published on 31 Jul 2005 at 3:00 pm.
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It takes more than 204,000 days for the tenth planet, nicknamed Xena, to orbit the sun. That’s a long, long year, 558 of our years - or about 7 or 8 of our lifespans.
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Tenth planet nicknamed Xena
Published on 31 Jul 2005 at 2:56 pm.
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Dr Brown and his team have christened the planet, Xena, after the warrior princess in the old television series, “… because we always wanted to name something Xena”. But the formal decision on a name will be made by the International Astronomical Union.
I would love to see it named Xena, but we will have to […]
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The discoverers of the tenth planet
Published on 31 Jul 2005 at 11:17 am.
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The discoverers of the tenth planet are Michael E. Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory), and David Rabinowitz (Yale University). They first imaged the object on October 21, 2003, but didn’t see it move in the sky until reimaging the same area 15 months later on January 8, 2005. They announced the discovery […]