Astronomical Union names new Dwarf planet
 

Welp. We got ourselves ANOTHER planet to remember. Thank you IAU, you folks are all bundles of fun.

So lets all welcome Haumea, named after the Hawaiian fertility goddess. Please note: This planet was previously called Santa..... Yeah...

It's got 2 moons: Hiʻiaka (formerly Rudolph) and Namaka (formerly Blitzen). Both moons are named after the daughters of Haumea. Hi'iaka is the patron goddess of Hawaii and Nameka is a water spirit.

Remember the good ole days when we had 9 planets to remember instead of 13?? Yeah...good times...good times..

http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/release/iau0807/

Just one question...

are there any more Roman pillaged Greek gods they can name planets after, or are they trying to be wise guys that find the most obscure thing they can name these things after?

I guess after Ceres and Eris they decided. "Hey! Not all our planets need to be named after Greco Roman gods! Lets go with random polynesian gods nobody's ever heard of!"

But hopefully after Makemake and Haumea the next ones will be Greco Roman again....unless they keep the names of the current canidates:

Sedna - Eskimo sea goddess (If McCain becomes president I bet the IAU will think it super keen to please Sarah Palin by making Sedna an official planet since her hubby is Eskimo.)
Quaoar - Native American creator god from some tribe in L.A
Orcus - Roman god of the underworld
Ixion - A son of Zeus or Ares who was a king that went mad, Zeus felt pity on him and braught him to Olympus. Only Ixion went gaga over Hera. Well Zeus god pissed and tricked him by making a cloud look like Hera. Ixion boinked the cloud, apperantly impregnated it, and the Centaurs were the result. :lol:
Varuna - Hindu god associated with Poseidon
Chaos - The primeval state of existance from which the gods were formed. Dude.. planet Chaos... *lol*
Huya - Venezuelan rain god

Apperantly according to the IAU rules any planet close in size to Pluto is named after a god of the underworld.

There's at least 40 canidates according to the IAU. However with all the planetoids/minor planets already named after various Greco Roman gods. I think they indeed ran out of names and are forced to go with other Pantheons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_planets

I think they should have completed the major Roman pantheon before moving on... and then they should have moved on to one where the deities are actually recognizable to most people (I'm a mythology buff, and I've still not heard of most of those), like Egyptian or Japanese.

That's just it. If you look at the names of the Moons, planetoids, and asteroids they DID complete the major Greco Roman pantheon! Then they went and started naming them after random things....like the asteroids: Anna Frank, Mister Rogers, and James Bond or the planet Raphaela (seriously....there's a planet Raphaela....) or planet Scott (ok who named these things?)

The Polynesian idea is just plain bad. I'd rather have a planet Thor (altho there IS a Thora....named by Johanna Palisa...the same guy who discovered Scott *lol*)

What about Auto Flippa? Incan God of ties?

Well there's a Philia, Filippoff, Philoctetes, Autonoma, Automedon, Filipenko, Phil Davis, Filatov, Phillipadams, Philveron, Philbland.....

I can't find any info on a god of ties... but hey there's a planetoid named TARDIS....there's also Bilbo and Tolkien.....and Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphaela....haven't found Donatello yet...but Im sure there is one....*looks at the list she's looking at* Ooh wait....there he is!!

I can't really understand your irritation on this topic.

School
 

I recall when we were reading about it in school in the second grade (1990/1991 school year) - the planets of our Solar System were 9 and man didn't know any other stars than the Sun having planets orbiting it.

When I was in school I was taught that there were nine planets, and that Pluto was farthest from the sun. Imagine my dismay upon discovering that for a 20 year period starting the year I was born Pluto was actually closer to the sun than Neptune. In other words, up to 1999 when I discovered this factoid, my ENTIRE LIFE I had been taught a LIE. I am also cheesed that Pluto is no longer considered a planet. But I reckon these new planets are kewl. o_O

1979-1999
 

That happens sometimes, latest 1979-1999, that Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune. But Pluto was always still considered being farthest planet from the sun from it was discovered by man in 1930 until it lost it's planet status on 24 August 2006.

Why can't they use Norse pantheons? Planet Thor would be awesome and so would Oden or Loki.

The Norse Pantheon has already been used up thru the Moons, Asteroids, and other various planetoids. There's planetoids called Thora and Odin, while Loki and Balder are names of Patarae (volcanic craters) on the moon Io.

Is really a planet called Raphaela ?

Have they named a planet Gallifrey yet? Man if they've named a planet Gallifrey my head will explode from the awesome...

Pretty cool avatar, Kunoichi.

Thanks, Sewer B- I mean Mino! :P It was time for a change.