Title: Naming planets
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It was Metron, not Metric.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, 2005-08-06 18:40
Subject: [USMA:33849] Naming
planets
Dear
All,
A week or so ago some people were wondering how the tenth planet
in the solar system should be named. It was suggested that the name 'metric'
might be appropriate now that we have a decimal number of planets.
This
extract from the 'worldwidewwords' newsletter might add something to the
naming discussion.
'XENA When four asteroids were named John,
Paul, George and Ringo
many years ago, it was confirmation that the star
system had really
hit astronomy. Two weeks ago I mentioned that Star Wars
had gone
literally astronomical with an extraordinary celestial object
being
named after Luke Skywalker's home world Tatooine. Now the
minor
planet just discovered way out beyond Pluto in the Kuiper Belt
has
been styled Xena after the heroine of that hokum-filled
television
series Xena: Warrior Princess. At this moment this is a
nickname,
since discoveries have to go through a formal procedure before
a
name is accepted; currently, Xena is officially
2003UB313.'
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin ASM (NSAA), LCAMS (USMA)*
PO
Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241
2008
Pat Naughtin is
the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication
matters'.
You can subscribe by going to http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
*
Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the Australian
Government Publishing Service 'Style manual for writers, editors and
printers', he is an Accredited Speaking Member (ASM) with the National
Speakers Association of Australia, and a Lifetime Certified Advanced
Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. For
more information go to: http://metricationmatters.com
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