Astronomy News

Dwarf Planet 2003 UB313 and its moon (Previously nicknamed "Xena" and "Gabrielle," resepectively) have now been granted official names by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The main dwarf planet body has been named "Eris" for the Greek goddess of strife and discord (equivalent to the Roman goddess Discordia). The moon of Eris has been renamed "Dysnomia" for the Greek goddess of lawlessness and daughter of Eris.

Ironically, the name of the moon IS, in fact, still a sly reference to the TV series "Xena Warrior Princess", due to the fact that Dysnomia is the goddess of lawlessness and Xena was played by the actress Lucy Lawless. The naming comittee at the IAU and Mike Brown (discoverer of Eris) have admitted that this is no accident. The IAU wisely kept with the naming theme of mythological figures while still paying homage to the discoverer's wishes.

Sometimes astronomers discover things in space that are really weird.

For example, a small moon of Saturn (photographed by the cassini spacecraft) which looks more like a sea-sponge or a loofah than a moon.

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1615_1.asp

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1617_1.asp

Large Dust storms currently visible on the surface of Mars! I may be setting up the scope over the next several nights to check it out!

Japan's Hayabusa space probe is closing in on it's target, the unusual surface of asteroid "25143 Itokawa".

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1610_1.asp

The link has plenty of photos of the boulder-strewn surface.