What Is Eris? depending on your familiarity with our solar system, you'll or might not realize Eris, and for good reason supported its location and the way it relates to other planets and celestial objects within the system. In short, Eris is one among the most important known dwarf planets in our system . For those that do not know , a Dwarf Planet is one that has the dimensions and shape of a planet but fails to satisfy certain technical qualifications to be considered a full planet. Eris is about an equivalent size as Pluto, but is 3 times farther from the Sun. Making it something on the very edges of our system . In fact, outside of some comets that are discovered and a "unique object" from 2018, the 2 are the foremost distant known objects in our system . Eris first seemed to be larger than Pluto. This started a debate in the scientific community that led to the International Astronomical Union's decision in 2006 to make clear the definition of a planet. Pluto, Eris and some other objects are now classified as dwarf planets. Originally designated 2003 UB313 (and nicknamed for the tv warrior Xena by its discovery team), Eris is known as for the traditional Greek goddess of discord and strife. The name fits since it remains at the middle of a scientific debate about the definition of a planet.
The Discovery Of Eris Given all we just told you, the invention of this dwarf planet is basically significant. The discovery was announced in July 2005, an equivalent day as Makemake and two days after Haumea (two other dwarf planets), due partially to events that might later lead to controversy about Haumea. The search team had been systematically scanning for giant outer system bodies for several years, and had been involved within the discovery of several other large TNOs, including 50000 Quaoar, 90482 Orcus, and 90377 Sedna.
The reason that Eris wasn't discovered directly via the pictures in 2003 was very simple, Eris was moving so slowly that scientists weren't ready to detect it. The team at the Palomar Observatory had automatic image-searching software that excluded all objects moving at but 1.5 arcseconds per hour to scale back the amount of false positives returned. When Sedna was discovered in 2003, it had been moving at 1.75 arcsec/h, and in light of that the team reanalyzed their old data with a lower limit on the angular motion. Thus resulting in its true discovery. then , the team dedicated itself to learning more about the soon-to-be-named dwarf planet, mainly learning what quite orbit it had, and eventually learning the invention that it had a moon within its orbit. 6. The Xena Name I'm sure a number of you out there have been a touch curious on why a scientific team would nickname a planet "Xena" after the legendary television program featuring Lucy Lawless. . thanks to uncertainty over whether the thing would be classified as a planet or a asteroid , because different nomenclature procedures apply to those different classes of objects (which would cause the demoting of Pluto shortly after Eris' discovery and classification), the choice on what to call the thing had to attend until after the August 24, 2006 IAU ruling. As a result, for a time the thing became known to the broader public as Xena. But why that one? "Xena" was an off-the-cuff name used internally by the invention team. it had been inspired by the title character of the tv series Xena: Warrior Princess. the invention team had reportedly saved the nickname "Xena" for the primary body they found that was larger than Pluto. consistent with Mike Brown, who was a part of the team that discovered the dwarf planet: "We chose it since it started with an X (planet "X"), it sounds mythological (OK, so it's TV mythology, but Pluto is known as after a cartoon, right?), and (this part is really true) we've been working to urge more female deities out there (e.g. Sedna). Also, at the time, the television program was still on TV, which shows you ways long we've been searching!". the method was delayed due to the classification issue, and thus, Xena stuck for an extended time. As for a way that name got cursed with the general public at large, you'll blame the press for that: " One reporter [Ken Chang] called me up from The ny Times who happened to possess been a lover of mine from college, [and] i used to be a touch less guarded with him than i'm with the traditional press.