Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Planet Xena and Its Moon: Gabrielle  (Read 3557 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline asian1Topic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 1359
    • Show only replies by asian1
Planet Xena and Its Moon: Gabrielle
« on: October 04, 2005, 07:27:07 AM »
From Scientific American:

W.M. KECK Observatory, October 03, 2005      
Astronomers have spotted a moon orbiting the newly discovered tenth planet, 2003 UB313, or Xena, as it has been codenamed after the TV warrior princess. The moon, dubbed Gabrielle for the TV Xena's sidekick, is estimated to be one tenth the size of the planet, which itself is believed to measure around 2,700 kilometers across. Scientists plan to observe Gabrielle again in November and December using the Hubble Space Telescope, which should enable them to ascertain the moon's orbit and mass.
 

Offline blobrana

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 4743
    • Show only replies by blobrana
    • http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/blobrana/home.html
Re: Planet Xena and Its Moon: Gabrielle
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2005, 08:12:30 AM »
Watch out in a few weeks for the announcement that Xena is spinning rapidly and is oddly shaped…


In this image Gabrielle is seen on the right.

Offline asian1Topic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 1359
    • Show only replies by asian1
Re: Planet Xena and Its Moon: Gabrielle
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2005, 10:37:01 AM »
There are two other new planets and a moon with strange name:
1. Planet Santa with its moon: Rudolph.
2. Planet Easter Bunny.

From Astrobio.net:
"The second of the objects, currently nicknamed Santa because Brown and his colleagues found it on December 28, 2004, is one of the more bizarre objects in the solar system, according to Rabinowitz. His observations from a small telescope in Chile show that Santa is a fast-rotating cigar-shaped body that is about the diameter of Pluto along its longer axis. No large body in the solar system comes even close to rotating as fast as Santa's four-hour period. Observations by Brown and his colleagues at the Keck Observatory have shown that Santa also has a tiny moon, nicknamed Rudolph, which circles it every 49 days.
The third new discovery is Easterbunny, so named because of its discovery earlier this year on March 1. Easterbunny is also at 52 astronomical units, and like Santa is probably about three-quarters the size of Pluto. Morever, Easterbunny is now the third known object in the Kuiper belt, after Pluto and Xena, which is known to have a surface covered in frozen methane. For decades, Pluto was the only known methane-covered object beyond Neptune, but "now we suddenly have three in a variety of sizes at a variety of distances and can finally try to understand Pluto and its cousins," says Kris Barkume, a PhD student working with Brown."
 

Offline McNorris

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2002
  • Posts: 926
    • Show only replies by McNorris
Re: Planet Xena and Its Moon: Gabrielle
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2005, 08:33:21 AM »
So the Planet Xena and it's Moon were not named as such because they both posess two gigantic mountain ranges and  deep canyons? :-o
Where to get the news that matters...
http://www.theonion.com...
 

Offline Cyberus

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2003
  • Posts: 5696
    • Show only replies by Cyberus
Re: Planet Xena and Its Moon: Gabrielle
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2005, 11:28:21 AM »
:roll:
I like Amigas