Pluto's newly found moons named Nix, Hydra

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GoldEagle

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LOS ANGELES - Meet the newest kids in the solar system: Nix and Hydra. The pair of moons orbiting Pluto were officially christened last week by the International Astronomical Union, which is in charge of approving celestial names.
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Until last year, scientists thought Pluto was accompanied by only one moon, Charon. But the
Hubble Space Telescope spotted the two satellites — more than twice as far away as Charon and many times fainter.

The duo had been known by the tongue-twisting names S/2005 P 2 and S/2005 P 1. Earlier this year, the moons' discoverers, led by Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., submitted their choices to the IAU.

The names, with roots in Greek mythology, were selected in part because their first letters, "N" and "H," were a tribute to the New Horizons spacecraft, Stern said Wednesday.

New Horizons blasted off earlier this year on a nine-year mission to study Pluto, the last unexplored planet in the solar system. Stern is the mission's principal investigator.

Nix was originally spelled "Nyx" by Stern's group. Nyx is the Greek goddess of darkness and Hydra is the nine-headed serpent that guarded the underworld. Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld.

But since a near-Earth object was already called Nyx, the IAU decided to tweak the spelling to "Nix" to avoid confusion.

Stern said he wasn't disappointed by the spelling change because the pronunciation and significance of the names were still intact.

"The joke was that they nixed Nyx," Stern said.

This summer, the IAU will debate whether Pluto should remain a planet. The discovery of an icy object slightly larger than Pluto in the Kuiper Belt last year reinvigorated the argument over whether to demote Pluto or add other planets.
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Pluto has to remain a planet. The attempts to de-planetize Pluto is an effort by Athiests to dismiss the importance of an afterlife.

EDIT: I'm guessing Cereberus is already an object on the solar system? How about Midas, that could've been a good one.
 
Interesting I had no idea these moons had even been found, I guess I'm out of the loop. Pluto should stay a planet IMO, it's too late to dick around with the solar system now. Pluto is a dog anyway, maybe they thought another dog would be one too many?;) I had no idea a Hydra guarded the afterlife as well as a dog. It's almost as though they didn't want anyone to get in who wasnt invited, now knowing what I do about Hades - It was a terrible plaste of ghostly undeath with no reddeming features - it makes me wonder why anyone wanted in and why it was guarded? No wonder Christianity became popular in Rome and Greece so quick.
 
Sidhe said:
Pluto should stay a planet IMO, it's too late to dick around with the solar system now.
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Having Pluto remain a planet would eliminate planet as a useful category.

Besides, it's not like stuff hasn't been demoted from planethood before. Nothing particularly bad happened when Ceres was stripped of planethood.
 
Only if you have to have narrowly defined criteria, and the discussion on what and what isn't a planet is still hotly debated, making exceptions would not mean future rocks would have to be made planetary bodies. People are capable of ingoring exceptions to rules. They call it the exception that proves the rule.:p
 
Sidhe said:
Only if you have to have narrowly defined criteria, and the discussion on what and what isn't a planet is still hotly debated, making exceptions would not mean future rocks would have to be made planetary bodies. People are capable of ingoring exceptions to rules. They call it the exception that proves the rule.:p
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This, near as I can tell, entirely fails to address my point.
 
In that case make it more clear, it sounds like your saying if Pluto is a planet then we have to delineate and place things into absolute categories in all cases, I merely suggested that isn't the case, if that isn't what you meant then I apologise I misinterpreted your post.
 
Pluto has multiple Satellites, which I believe now distinguishes it from every other Kuiper Belt Object.
 
Sidhe said:
In that case make it more clear, it sounds like your saying if Pluto is a planet then we have to delineate and place things into absolute categories in all cases, I merely suggested that isn't the case, if that isn't what you meant then I apologise I misinterpreted your post.
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My point is this: Pluto is clearly much more related to the (other) KBOs than to the Jovian and Terrestrial planets. Any reasonable definition of "planet" that is based on physical properties and includes both the Earth and Pluto will also include a host of other little icy worlds in the outer reaches of the solar system, so we're left with this choice; either we let "planet" become a meaningless designation for a traditional set of objects, or we monkey with the list of planets (either by dropping Pluto or by including a whole host of KBOs - the former would be my preference).

Having a physical definition of "planet" would be much helpful for discussions of extrasolar planets.
 
The Last Conformist said:
My point is this: Pluto is clearly much more related to the (other) KBOs than to the Jovian and Terrestrial planets. Any reasonable definition of "planet" that is based on physical properties and includes both the Earth and Pluto will also include a host of other little icy worlds in the outer reaches of the solar system, so we're left with this choice; either we let "planet" become a meaningless designation for a traditional set of objects, or we monkey with the list of planets (either by dropping Pluto or by including a whole host of KBOs - the former would be my preference).

Having a physical definition of "planet" would be much helpful for discussions of extrasolar planets.
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I agree it's very much a Kupier object rather than a true planet, but it seems regardless of it's absolute designation it's likely to remain a planet for some considerable time to come, I'm of the view it's an exception I can live with, and still have arbitrary rules about what a planet is.

The Last Conformist said:
I'm willing to bet it won't long maintain that distinction. :)
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I'll take that bet on the opposite side of course:)
 
Sidhe said:
I agree it's very much a Kupier object rather than a true planet, but it seems regardless of it's absolute designation it's likely to remain a planet for some considerable time to come, I'm of the view it's an exception I can live with, and still have arbitrary rules about what a planet is.
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The only way I can seem to make sense of this is by assuming that you meant "objective" rather than "arbitrary". Is that so?
 
Yes sorry I meant the decision about pluto is arbitrary and the decision about future planets is objective, I apologise for that it was a real blunder in terms.
 
The Last Conformist said:
Planet ten, you say?
Boy, do we have news for you;
Pluto go the shove!
-- Steve Mirsky
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Ha!

I switched sides on this matter. Pluto should be deplanetized, as it seem quite different from the other planets. Consider its elliptical orbit, which is extreme compared to the other planets.

The Last Conformist said:
Nix means "snow" in Latin, which seems an appropriate name to me.
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Didn't you read the article? It is a respelling of Nyx, the Greek goddess of darkness, to avoid confusion with Nyx the NEO.
 
Babbler said:
Didn't you read the article? It is a respelling of Nyx, the Greek goddess of darkness, to avoid confusion with Nyx the NEO.
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I read that, but who, honestly, is gonna remember that in ten years? The thing will be known as "Nix", not as "Nyx-spelt-with-an-i", and "Nix" happens to be a fitting name for a little icy world.

Incidentally, "Nyx" and "Nix" are pronounced differently in my language.
 
If they take away planet status from Pluto, then kids everywhere will be stuck learning the solar system by memorizing, "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine....? Oh heck!"



btw, I never knew there was a movement on to kick it out. Good info.
 
The Last Conformist said:
I read that, but who, honestly, is gonna remember that in ten years? The thing will be known as "Nix", not as "Nyx-spelt-with-an-i", and "Nix" happens to be a fitting name for a little icy world.
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Pendants like me :D. Althought I doubt it will be remembered at all.

Esox said:
If they take away planet status from Pluto, then kids everywhere will be stuck learning the solar system by memorizing, "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine....? Oh heck!"
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"My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nothing",

She gotten worst over the years...
 
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