Name Eris (dwarf planet)

athenian painting of eris, c. 550 bc

eris named after greek goddess eris (greek Ἔρις), personification of strife , discord. name proposed caltech team on september 6, 2006, , assigned on september 13, 2006, following unusually long period in object known provisional designation 2003 ub313, granted automatically iau under naming protocols minor planets. regular adjectival form of eris eridian.

xena

due uncertainty on whether object classified planet or minor planet, because different nomenclature procedures apply these different classes of objects, decision on name object had wait until after august 24, 2006, iau ruling. result, time object became known wider public xena.

xena informal name used internally discovery team. inspired title character of television series xena: warrior princess. discovery team had reportedly saved nickname xena first body discovered larger pluto. according brown,

we chose since started x (planet x ), sounds mythological (ok, s tv mythology, pluto named after cartoon, right?), , (this part true) ve been working more female deities out there (e.g. sedna). also, @ time, tv show still on tv, shows how long ve been searching!

assumed [that] real name come out quickly, [but] process got stalled , mike brown said in interview,

one reporter [ken chang] called me new york times happened have been friend of mine college, [and] little less guarded him normal press. asked me, s name guys proposed? , said, well, m not going tell. , said, well, guys call when re talking amongst yourselves? ... far remember time told in press, , got everywhere, sorta felt bad about—i kinda name.

choosing official name

artist s impression of dwarf planet eris , large moon dysnomia. artistic representation based on observations made @ eso s la silla observatory.

according science writer govert schilling, brown wanted call object lila , after concept in hindu mythology described cosmos outcome of game played brahma. name similar lilah , name of brown s newborn daughter. brown mindful of not making name public before had been officially accepted. had done sedna year previously, , had been heavily criticized. however, no objection raised sedna name other breach of protocol, , no competing names suggested sedna.

he listed address of personal web page announcing discovery /~mbrown/planetlila , in chaos following controversy on discovery of haumea, forgot change it. rather needlessly anger more of fellow astronomers, said webpage had been named daughter , dropped lila consideration.

brown had speculated persephone, wife of god pluto, name object. name had been used several times in science fiction, , popular public, having handily won poll conducted new scientist magazine ( xena , despite being nickname, came fourth). not possible once object classified dwarf planet, because there asteroid name, 399 persephone.

with dispute resolved, discovery team proposed eris on september 6, 2006. on september 13, 2006 name accepted official name iau. brown decided that, because object had been considered planet long, deserved name greek or roman mythology, other planets. asteroids had taken vast majority of graeco-roman names. eris, whom brown described favorite goddess, had fortunately escaped inclusion. name in part reflects discord in astronomical community caused debate on object s (and pluto s) classification.

cite error: there <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on page, references not show without {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see page).