IAU Names Fifth Dwarf Planet Haumea 94
Kligat writes "The International Astronomical Union has renamed the dwarf planet Haumea and its two moons Hi'iaka and Namaka, after the Hawaiian fertility goddess, the patron goddess of Hawaii, and a water spirit. The cigar-shaped body is speculated to have resulted from its short rotational period of only four hours. Holding up the reclassification of the body as a dwarf planet was a dispute over its discovery between the groups of José Luis Ortiz Moreno and Michael E. Brown."
In Dutch... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not Gravitationally Rounded (Score:2, Interesting)
I thought the definition of a Dwarf Planet was that it was big enough to be rounded by its own gravity, but not big enough to have swept its orbit clear of other debris?
If it is indeed cigar shape, it would appear to fail the first of these criteria.
Re:Yet another goddess (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't you think a name like Jesus at least deserves a moon? An asteroid would be Baby Jesus.
Dwarf Planets should be named after Dwarves (Score:3, Interesting)
If they're going to call them dwarf planets, they should name them after dwarves.
Probably some of the dwarves in Norse mythology have names? But certainly there's all the Tolkein dwarves, and the Disney dwarfs.