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Science Hawaiian mythology plays role in naming of new dwarf planet
Science Hawaiian mythology plays role in naming of new dwarf planet | Hawaiian mythology plays role in naming of new dwarf planet |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Tuesday, 23 September 2008 | |
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Science DiscussionsHaumea joins Ceres (the smallest dwarf planet), Eris (the largest dwarf planet), Pluto (the former ninth planet), and Makemake (the formerly most recent named dwarf planet). The announcement came through an IAU news release “IAU names fifth dwarf planet Haumea.” The IAU is an internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies such as planets, dwarf planets, stars, asteroids, etc. The members of the Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN) and the IAU Working Group voted on the membership of the new body into the dwarf planet classification. It is formally known as (136108) Haumea. The discovery of 2003 EL61 was made using observatory data taken in 2003/2004 (and announced in 2005) by the astronomical team headed up by Mike Brown (See Mike Brown's Planets.) at the California Institute of Technology and by the team lead by Jose-Luis Ortiz at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (Institute of Astrophysics of Andulusia) at the Sierra Nevade Observatory near Granada, Spain. According to the New Scientist article "Controversial dwarf planet finally named 'Haumea'," (subscription required) the discovery of the dwarf planet has been controversial. Ortiz filed a discovery claim for Haumea in 2005, but some astronomers claim that his team used data collected by Brown's team. The name of the discovery has so far been left blank by the IAU. (Credit of the discovery will go to both in this article, until further information is available.) Shaped like “a bizarre object with a shape resembling a plump cigar,” it has a width about the same as Pluto, but much elongated (thinner). It is about twice as long as its diameter. Why is Haumea shaped so strangely? Please read on. |
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