Sedna is NOT 2004 DW!

"Llanzlan Klazmon The 15th" wrote in message
7.6...
(P. Ussyliquor) wrote in
om:

"Sedna" is not the name of a Roman god.

Why can't NASA follow naming conventions?


NASA don't have the authority to name asteroids. They are named by the
MPC,
which is a section of the IAU. I notice that Sedna is not on the list on
the MPC website. They do list Quaoar.

LK

SNIP

AIUI the discoverers are invited to propose a name, subject to confirmation
by the Committee on Small Body Nomenclature of the IAU. The MPC does the
administrative work, including assigning Provisional Designations, which for
"Sedna" is 2003 VB12 (its only offical designation at present) and the
numeric Permanent Designations.

Names can only be considered after the assignment of a Permanent
Designation. This can only be done when the orbit becomes very well
determined so that the position can be reliably predicted far into the
future (in most cases this means after the minor planet has completed two or
even more observed orbital periods). For this object with an orbital period
upward of 10 millennia this last condition may have to be waived!

"Sedna" is the name which the discoverers team of Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo
and David Rabinowitz intend to propose when the opportunity occurs. They
also intend to suggest to the IAU that newly discovered objects in the inner
Oort cloud all be named after entities in arctic mythologies. NASA's only
involvement is funding the research and hosting the press conferences.

CSBN: http://www.ss.astro.umd.edu/IAU/csbn/mp.shtml
Discoverers' page: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/sedna/

Keith

"TK" == Tom Kirke writes:

TK Does anybody have a recent estimate ( & reference ) for the total
TK mass of the Kuiper belt? For the Oort cloud? I suspect that both
TK will total less than the classical planets.

Luu & Jewitt (2002, Ann. Rev. Astron. & Astrophys., vol. 40, p. 63)
estimate the total mass of the Kuiper Belt. There are a number of
uncertainties of course, but they find the total mass to be 0.08 Earth
masses.

--
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No means no, stop rape. | http://patriot.net/%7Ejlazio/
sci.astro FAQ at http://sciastro.astronomy.net/sci.astro.html

In article , says...
The BIG question now is; are there now two new planets in the solar
system, or still 9??

What's big about it?

It's a rock, a cold one, we know where it is and what it's doing. What's the big deal whether it fits into some
definition of the word 'planet' ? That won't change, solve, or illuminate anything.

--
ICQ 40628243 Tel 07092057581 Fax 07092308800

In article , Thomas Lee
Elifritz wrote:

So you claim KBOs did not accrete from the solar nebula in solar orbit.

No, I claim that they did not form in the accretion disk but rather in
the solar halo, a quasi-spherical region around the sun and larger than
the disk.

tom

--
We have discovered a therapy ( NOT a cure )
for the common cold. Play tuba for an hour.

Since it's over 70 years since another planet was found. Since there
would only be 10 bigger objects with planetary orbits in the solar
system.
Since any object any human being could create in our lifetimes
could not reach any object bigger than those 15-20 objects.
That's my definition of big. To call it a 'rock' is at best
very sloppy. Just as easy to call the Earth a rock, then...
Just go on, call the Sun a rock too..

You don't know a thing about what Sedna or 2004 DW is 'doing'.
Remember the great red moon (not a rock) Triton, passed by
Voyager in 1989. Would anyone had guessed on a 'cantaloupe' terrain.
Or that there would be geysir volcanoes letting out some black
stuff streaking the surface all over the place. Noone knew
what Triton was 'doing' before they studied it up close.
And they still don't know much about it.
By the way, is Triton related to Sedna since they both are red,
and they both frequent the same part of the Solar system?
Since you know what Sedna is 'doing' I bet you must
know the answer to that question? Probably you don't.

Bjørn Sørheim


Peter Harding wrote:

In article , says...
The BIG question now is; are there now two new planets in the solar
system, or still 9??

What's big about it?

It's a rock, a cold one, we know where it is and what it's doing. What's the big deal whether it fits into some
definition of the word 'planet' ? That won't change, solve, or illuminate anything.

--
ICQ 40628243 Tel 07092057581 Fax 07092308800

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"Gautam Majumdar" wrote in message
newsan.2004.03.16.07.04.55.176670.2487@XSPAMfree uk.com...
On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 23:17:51 +0000, P. Ussyliquor wrote:

"Sedna" is not the name of a Roman god.

Why can't NASA follow naming conventions?

Why Roman Gods must have a monopoly on the names of the planets ? Varuna &
Quaoar are not Roman Gods either.

Nor are they considered to be planets.

"Sedna" is not the name of a Roman god.

Why can't NASA follow naming conventions?

"Sedna" is just the suggestion of the discoverers.
To become official, all names have to be assigned
by the International Astronomical Union.

Ben

Llanzlan Klazmon The 15th wrote:
: (P. Ussyliquor) wrote in
: om:

: "Sedna" is not the name of a Roman god.
:
: Why can't NASA follow naming conventions?
:

: NASA don't have the authority to name asteroids. They are named by the MPC,
: which is a section of the IAU. I notice that Sedna is not on the list on
: the MPC website. They do list Quaoar.

It is not the MPC that names minor planets. It is the CSBN, a committee
of the IAU. The new names, though, are announced in the Minor Planet
Circulars, which are issued by the MPC. Also, minor planets are not named
until they have been numbered.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gareth V. Williams, MS 18, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Associate Director, IAU Minor Planet Center
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/mpc.html
OpenVMS & RISC OS: refined choices in operating systems

"Gareth V. Williams" wrote in
:

Llanzlan Klazmon The 15th wrote:
: (P. Ussyliquor) wrote in
: om:

: "Sedna" is not the name of a Roman god.
:
: Why can't NASA follow naming conventions?
:

: NASA don't have the authority to name asteroids. They are named by
: the MPC, which is a section of the IAU. I notice that Sedna is not on
: the list on the MPC website. They do list Quaoar.

It is not the MPC that names minor planets. It is the CSBN, a
committee
of the IAU. The new names, though, are announced in the Minor Planet
Circulars, which are issued by the MPC. Also, minor planets are not
named until they have been numbered.


Thanks for the correction.

LK.

(BHZellner) wrote in message ...
"Sedna" is not the name of a Roman god.

Why can't NASA follow naming conventions?

"Sedna" is just the suggestion of the discoverers.
To become official, all names have to be assigned
by the International Astronomical Union.

Further proof astronomers are idiots.

Pluto is a planet, no one is going to change that now. And if Pluto is
a planet then so is "Sedna". Which means it should follow the naming
convention for planets.