Fanboys... In... Spa-a-a-a-ace!

[filkertom]

You may have heard that some scientists have discovered what they believe to be a tenth planet in our solar system. Its nickname is Xena, because one of the scientists was a big fan of that show.

Turns out that, whatever it is, it's got a satellite.

Which they have promptly nicknamed Gabrielle.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Gotta love Mike Brown. He's a character.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

*snrk!* Figgers. Man, Venus and Mercury are looking more and more out of place every day when even asteroids have moons and they don't.

Me, I'm in the 'Pluto is not a planet' camp. We have eight planets, and a lot of icy rocks/huge-ass comets out past Neptune. However, if the IAU decides that Pluto really is a planet, then "Xena" becomes one automatically, and the name I've heard bandied about most often as a new planet name is 'Persephone'. Which works.

[kengr]

Of course, when you get right down to it *Luna* isn't really a "moon". Terra & Luna orbit a point *outside* Terra. and Luna's orbital path is always convex with respect to Sol.

So Terra/Luna is properly a binary planet, not a planet/satellite system.

Of course there's no way *that'll* ever go over...

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention. That was the point of the first essay--and title--of the Isaac Asimov collection, "The Double Planet". :)

The center of gravity of the Earth-Moon system is actually inside Earth, not outside it ... I forget exactly where, but I could look it up.

[kengr]

I've read Asimov's essays, and yes, I've swiped more than a few ideas from them.

[armb.livejournal.com]

> Terra & Luna orbit a point *outside* Terra

The common center of gravity is inside the Earth:
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/ast99/ast99525.htm
http://www.princeton.edu/~pccm/outreach/scsp/water_on_earth/tides/science/causes.htm

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

And the scary thing is that while I was spinning out the yarn for Elizabeth, she knew the answer and finished the sentence for me.

[cktraveler.livejournal.com]

I'll bet that about once a year one of them orbits one of the planets with a male name just to keep the conservatives off their backs.

[gpeefalt.livejournal.com]

And then their gonna find another one and name it Joxer...

[lapislaz.livejournal.com]

They'd have to name it Joxer - they've already named a moon Callisto.

[cwsensation.livejournal.com]

No, Joxer would be the asteroid belt surrounding Gabrielle.

--Jer