BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Russian Culture Name that planet

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050802/sc_afp/spaceplanetoffbeat_050802175418

Out of this world: magazine launches name-the-planet initiative Tue Aug 2, 1:54
PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - Should it be named after a Greek or Roman god? A great scientist
or artist? How about calling it after a character in the "Star Wars" film
series? Or your best friend?

The British magazine New Scientist has called on readers to help suggest a name
for the solar system's 10th planet, whose discovery was announced last week by a
team led by US astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology.
The new world has been given the provisional designation of 2003 UB313.
But Brown has 10 years in which to think of a catchier name and have it approved
by a panel of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Brown, a fan of TV's Warrior Princess, has given the informal name of Xena to
2003 UB313, a frozen orb some 15 billion kilometres (nine billion miles) from
Earth, New Scientist said on its website (www.newscientistspace.com) on Tuesday.
"But that was our tongue-in-cheek internal name, never intended for public
consumption," Brown told the magazine.
Under the IAU's nomenclature guidelines, names should be pronounceable,
non-offensive, 16 characters or less in length and preferably one word.
Names should not be too similar to an existing name of a minor planet or natural
planetary satellite.
In addition, names for persons or events known primarily for their military or
political activities are acceptable only after 100 years have elapsed since the
person died or the event occurred.
Commercial names are not allowed, and the names of pet animals are discouraged.

Carl. I just picked up a copy of Astronomy magazine and there is an artical about that new planet and there is debate about whether Pluto should be considered a planet. The new discovery may be larger than Pluto and the argument is "if Pluto is considered a planet, than something larger should also have the same honor". BTW the new "planet" takes 560 years to orbit the Sun. I also read an artical about the revision of "Cosmic String Theory".
While reading the Astronomy magazine it was apparent that there were a lot of articles that pertained to cooperation between Russian astronomy and astronomers of different countries.

Bob, also consider joint USA-Russia UFO research. Thanks. Carl