10th planet found?

[Jonathan]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3511678.stm

Astronomers have found an object about the size of Pluto in the outer regions of our solar system. The "new planet" has been named Sedna, after the goddess of the ocean in Inuit mythology.
However, since there is no real definition of what is a planet and what is not, it is not that this new celestial body will get planet status. Astronomers aren't even sure if Pluto should be called a planet.

To find objects orbiting around the sun at a distance further than Pluto is nothing new. There is the so-called Kuiper-belt which has more than 400 big objects in it, however this is the largest object so far that they have found out there, next to Pluto.

Am I the only one who thinks that they should have named the object after a Vala rather than an Inuit goddess?

[Beor]

Dude, that is awesome! A new planet?! Break out the *tequila* champagne! And yes, it should be named after a Vala.

[Valandil]

How about just 'Arda'!?

[Beor]

How about Mandos, since everytime they find some new planet or comet or asteroid, the doomsayers come out crying about the end of the world, or the kinslaying, or whatever, "Great is the Fall of Gondolin" OOh, I'm scared now. Shakin'.

[Lalaith]

Whoa. A new planet. Don't know if that's good news or not.
At least no aliens.



But naming it after a Tolkien character would indeed be great.

[Insidious Rex]

Is its orbit normal? theres probably a half dozen other obcjects of similar size in the Kuiper belt. but they tend to have wacky orbits because of the pin ball effect of living in an enormous cloud of rocks.

[gimli7410]

dammit now im gonna have to learn more crap in my science next year

[Earniel]

Actually, if it's big enough to be named, I would have prefered them to stick to Roman mythological names. While the myth of Sedna is interesting, I'm sure there were enough Roman or Greek gods of godesses around to draw from. It stands so....so sloppy to break the tradition now.

[Beor]

That is true, it would be a little sloppy. I dont even know the myth of Sedna. Mind enlightning me (or is it in the article, and I missed it )

Hell, Hera aint taken, nor is Athena (which I forgot both the Roman equivalents, and how to spell "equivalents")

[Earniel]

It's not in the article (or at least I didn't see it either)

Here ya go.

Sedna's story

[Beor]

Thank you, Earniel .

Man, her dad was a (insert curse word)! Screw him. But that really doesnt fit the planet. Maybe if it was blue, or raven colored, but it said it appears red. Strange.

[Jonathan]

Originally posted by Insidious Rex
Is its orbit normal? theres probably a half dozen other obcjects of similar size in the Kuiper belt. but they tend to have wacky orbits because of the pin ball effect of living in an enormous cloud of rocks.

I don't think they have determined Sedna's orbit yet, but it's a very large one. However that isn't strange considering how far away from the sun the "planetoid" is. My guess is that its orbit ressembles the one of Pluto. While the other planets are found in a somewhat straight line, Pluto is not, and its orbit is also a lot more elliptic than the rest of the planetary orbits. That probably goes for Sedna as well.

Originally posted by Eärniel
Actually, if it's big enough to be named, I would have prefered them to stick to Roman mythological names. While the myth of Sedna is interesting, I'm sure there were enough Roman or Greek gods of godesses around to draw from. It stands so....so sloppy to break the tradition now.

The name Sedna might only be temporary though. This is what the BBC article says:

However, if [Sedna's] planetary status is confirmed, it may be that astronomy's governing body, the International Astronomical Union, will want to reconsider this, to make it more consistent with the mythological names of other planets.

Originally posted by Eärniel
Here ya go.

Sedna's story

Oh yeah, I was going to post the story of Sedna but I forgot. How come the astronomers chose to name Sedna after an Inuit goddess? I don't know any Inuit mythology

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by Jonathan
How come the astronomers chose to name Sedna after an Inuit goddess? I don't know any Inuit mythology

Well its not unprecedented to name space objects after things other then traditional roman and greek mythological figures now. In fact when they discovered another enermous Kuiper belt object back in 2002 they named it Quaoar after the "creation myth of the Tongva people who inhabited the Los Angeles area before the arrival of the Spanish and other European settlers." And Im pretty sure theres been other obscure diety references before that one. I think the multicultural approach to mythology has crept into the astonomical community the past ten years or so. so they figured it was time for some different kinds of gods to be recognized.

[Jonathan]

Originally posted by Insidious Rex
Well its not unprecedented to name space objects after things other then traditional roman and greek mythological figures now.

I know, it's just that I've never even heard about the existance of Inuit mythology . Oh well, I guess I'm not that enlightened then.

They should name more celestial bodies after Norse gods. Them, I know tons about

[Earniel]

Originally posted by Insidious Rex
I think the multicultural approach to mythology has crept into the astonomical community the past ten years or so. so they figured it was time for some different kinds of gods to be recognized.

I think it's a very cool idea to name sky bodies after other mythologies as well. It's not that I give preference to the Roman mythology as a whole but I like the consistancy among the planetsnames. So I hope that if Sedna gets 'planet approval' the name will be changed to fit the other planets.

I think Sedna's myth about the only genuine Inuit myth that I know of, though.

If I knew a little more of astronomy I could amuse myself with looking up random celestial rocks and try to determine from which mythology they're from. And who knows, maybe there's a Varda or an Uinen already circling above us!

[Jonathan]

Originally posted by Eärniel
And who knows, maybe there's a Varda or an Uinen already circling above us!

http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html

This is a bit off topic but I found a list of names for minor celestial bodies and found that a guy named Mark Watts in 1982 had named one asteroid Tolkien and another Bilbo!

I couldn't find any asteroids named after any of the valar, but I did however find one called "Vala". Though it was discovered before the birth of Tolkien so it has nothing to do with him.

[trolls' bane]

I heard about it today. In fact, I was just talking about it. I was rather upset because they didn't name it after its discoverer.

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by Jonathan
I know, it's just that I've never even heard about the existance of Inuit mythology . Oh well, I guess I'm not that enlightened then.

They should name more celestial bodies after Norse gods. Them, I know tons about

Yeah especially those tiny freezing cold ones. Would be highly appropriate I think. Oh by the way I heard on the radio last night that this Sedna goddess is supposed to live in the most remote region of the bottom of the ocean in a castle of ice. So I guess that explains why they chose to name a super frozen rock on the outer rim of our solar system after her.