The astronomers who claim to have discovered the 10th planet in the solar system have another intriguing announcement: It has a moon.
While observing the new, so-called planet from Hawaii last month, a team of astronomers led by Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology spotted a faint object trailing next to it. Because it was moving, astronomers ruled it was a moon and not a background star, which is stationary.
The moon discovery is important because it can help scientists determine the new planet's mass. In July, Brown announced the discovery of an icy, rocky object larger than Pluto in the Kuiper Belt, a disc of icy bodies beyond Neptune. Brown labeled the object a planet and nicknamed it Xena after the lead character in the former TV series "Xena: Warrior Princess." The moon was nicknamed Gabrielle, after Xena's faithful traveling sidekick.
Thank God this guy wasn't a fan of the Teletubbies...
This just makes me shake my head. Aren't our scientists reading the classics any more? Couldn't he have named the planet "Romeo" and it's moon "Juliet"? "Holmes" and "Watson"? Or better yet, name them after gods, like the rest of the damn solar system. Let's see, so besides Earth, we've got, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto and...Xena.
The names are just nicknames, not formal official names!
ReplyDeleteSee http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/index.html for more details.
I think the name Xena perfectly match with the other names. Xena is a myth of our times, and a greek one, too. Xena is perfect for me, and I think the man who discovered the planet should have all the right to name it as he wants, anyway...
ReplyDeleteWell, the tradition has always been to name the planets after Roman gods, not myths modern to the namers of the planets. Sorry. Why not name the planet Alderaan or Tatooine, then? I'd say Star Wars has had a slightly larger effect on western culture, than Xena--no offense to Xena fans, of course.
ReplyDeleteWell, why not? -the only reason is the man who discovered the planet wanted to name it Xena and I believe they must respect their whishes. Traditions can be changed, adapted to times. We can make new traditions too -if we can't do that, if we are not able to evolve... well, I think we are quite stupid if we chain ourselves to traditions or if we use them as an excuse to avoid any change.
ReplyDeleteI think you'd be surprise to know how many people consider themselves Xena fans all over the world -in your country you consider Star Wars as much most important than Xena (I guess that's not the case of Michael Brown, anyway), but if we're talking of the whole planet, perhaps you'd be wrong (though I don't know). And I think that naming the planet after Xena would make very happpy to all those people. I don't see the reason why people who doesn't mind about that show think they have the right to spoil that. I would't care if they'd wanted to named it any other name, but if we begin with that, perhaps next time Xena fans would make a campaign against any other names they propose, because they think that if they didn't allow Xena to name a planet, neither would that other. I think this is absurd. Brown should be the right to name the planet as he prefers.
I think Earth is not a Roman god, but anyway I don't care. And, by the way, "Roman" gods, if you don't know, are nothing but myths they toke from Greeks (they just changed their names) -just like Xena, only she's a modern myth... why should we always look at our past? We have great things now too that we should appreciate, instead of waiting thousend of years for others to appreciate that we can enjoy right now!
I understand your passion for Xena, believe me, I do. I don't share it, but I've had extreme passion for a couple franchises, so I know what that's like. As far as "new traditions" that would seem like a contradiction in terms like "instant classic."
ReplyDeleteThe main reason I wish we would just stick with Roman gods for names of planets is that it forces us to know more than what is immediately in front of us. Naming a planet after a character on a TV show half of the world watches doesn't challenge anyone. Naming a planet after a Roman god means that most of us have to learn something.
As for the Romans taking their gods from the Greeks, that's no different from Christianity taking its basis from Judeism. It doesn't make any religion any less legit, in my book.
Thanks for posting, though--I do appreciate your passion and I hope you can understand my reasoning, even if you don agree with it.
It's not "passion". It's just the wishes of the man who discovered the planet (If I didn't said before, I woudn't not said nothing even if they'd named the planet after a sportsman, though I sort of hate sports... it's just a question of tolerance and not to try spoil the dreams of other people just because they don't like the same things than you -I call that pure envy!)
ReplyDeleteWhen I said "new traditions" I meant that everytradition had a beginning, I don't know if you got that. We can't stuck ourselves to the past. Someday what we call "modern" now would be "traditional" for people of the future.
I think I understand you now... you americans don't know anything about classic culture and you have to learn that way... believe me, you'd learn A LOT about ancient gods and lots and lots of things more (tolerance, for instance) if you'd watch a couple of eps of that show. As a matter of fact, I've never interested in research more about the gods behind the names of the planets (what a bore!), and nobody explained to me at school either. But... it's not my case, but I know "a few" (well they're much more than just a few!) kids and young people who got interested in the study of classic culture and gods and everything (which was sort of depreciated in those times) AFTER they watch that show... so if that's the reason you gave me, you can see is not a good one.
I see you know "a lot" about ancient cultures and gods (by the gods, I really hope you're not a teacher!). Romans did not toke the basis of anything, they didn't invented any new stories, nothing... they just "translated" the names of the gods -they toke the gods, the stories, ANYTHING the Greek did, and just gave Roman names to them -they copied the art, the religion, everything of the people they had conquered, coz they were nothing but good warriors and copycats. It's not the same than Christian did, and your comparisson shows me you're talking about themes you barely know.
Thanks for explain your reasons anyway. Now I know you are against Xena naming a planet for wrong reasons.
Whew! I don't have time now to read all that you have wroten here (I´ll do other day... perhaps) -but, as far as I can see taking a quick look at it, I don't agree with Pete, and I don't see any insults -I think even kids in Europe know that what you call "Roman gods" are just GREEK gods with other names... it is THE SAME religion, the same gods (myths, to be exact), the same stories. You don’t have to tell me, I’m not an expert in religion, but everybody knows too that Christian religion toke ELEMENTS from different existent religions, but it is not the same case.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think this is not the point of that discussion, blogg, or whatever, and I see that everybody is getting too emotional here. Under my humble point of view, this is not about that TV show or the "Roman" gods vs. Christian religion, nor Romeo and Juliette... (by the way, why should the male character be the planet and the female one the moon? –I guess if I look at it in that way, I prefer the name Brown suggested too!). But hell, I've heard this man was searching for that planet for years and years. He SHOULD have the right to name it as he wants, either Xena or Maradona (this is a soccer player which some people consider “their Godâ€!)or Lisa (Anyway, like Juliette said, what's in a name…?)
Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you nor I did, I think I was far more respectful with you than you were with any person who admire Xena, so if you don't leave me post here just coz I don't think like you, you are reasuring me in my opinion -you ARE one of those "you americans" I talked about...
ReplyDeleteBtw, I see from your answer that you toke all my message wrong.
Wow, you don't think you were even vaguely insulting? Well, this is my site and it's not a Xena fansite, so tell me why I need to be respectful of people who like Xena? I don't go to Republican blogs and talk about how they're disrespectful to independents like myself. I don't go to Democrat blogs and tell them how they're wrong.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I never said that anyone shouldn't be a fan of Xena or that anyone is stupid for being into Xena. All I said was that pop culture and science should not go together. You've expressed your opinion and I think this argument is over with no winner because ultimately this boils down to a difference of opinion.
But you know what? This is my site. You lose, I win. Naming pop culture icons to planets is shallow, ignorant and inspires no one to make any effort to learn something new.
You want to disagree with me? Fine--post about it on your own site. I think you've made your point and whether you meant it or not managed to make me feel insulted. Good job.
Out of all of the important stuff I blog on, it's always these minor posts that get most of the replies--I guess because it's easy to be a pissed off fanboy and hard to stand up and face the harsh reality that we live in a lopsided world where most humans live in poverty and famine and if you're using a computer right now, odds are you're not one of those billions of poverty-stricken individuals. My point, "Dana" is that there are much more important things to argue about than what the hell a planet is named. So, I'm done, you're done, that's it.