Eris (dwarf planet)
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Discovery | |||||||||
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Discovered by | |||||||||
Discovery date | January 5, 2005[2][a] | ||||||||
Designations | |||||||||
MPC designation | 136199 Eris | ||||||||
Pronunciation | /ˈɪərɨs/ or /ˈɛrɨs/[b] | ||||||||
Named after | Eris | ||||||||
Alternative names | 2003 UB313[3] | ||||||||
Minor planet category | |||||||||
Adjective | Eridian | ||||||||
Orbital characteristics[3] | |||||||||
Epoch 2013-Apr-18 (JD 2456400.5) |
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Aphelion |
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Perihelion |
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Semi-major axis |
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Eccentricity | 0.437 083 | ||||||||
Orbital period |
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Average orbital speed | 3.4338 km/s | ||||||||
Mean anomaly | 203.216° | ||||||||
Inclination | 43.8853° | ||||||||
Longitude of ascending node | 36.031° | ||||||||
Argument of perihelion | 150.800° | ||||||||
Satellites | Dysnomia | ||||||||
Physical characteristics | |||||||||
Mean radius | 1163 ± 6 km[8][9] | ||||||||
Surface area | 17,000,000 sq km (6,560,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
Mass | |||||||||
Mean density | 2.52 ± 0.05 g/cm3[8][11] | ||||||||
Equatorial surface gravity | 0.827 m/s2 0.084 g[12] |
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Escape velocity | 1.384 km/s | ||||||||
Sidereal rotation period | 25.9 ± 8 hr[3] | ||||||||
Albedo | 0.96+0.09 −0.04[8] |
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Spectral type | B-V=0.78, V-R=0.45[13] | ||||||||
Apparent magnitude | 18.7[14] | ||||||||
Absolute magnitude (H) | −1.19 ± 0.3[3] | ||||||||
Angular diameter | 40 milli-arcsec[15] |
Eris was discovered in January 2005 by a Palomar Observatory-based team led by Mike Brown, and its identity was verified later that year. It is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) and a member of a high-eccentricity population known as the scattered disc. It has one known moon, Dysnomia. As of 2011, its distance from the Sun is 96.6 AU,[14] roughly three times that of Pluto. With the exception of some comets, Eris and Dysnomia are currently the most distant known natural objects in the Solar System.[2][e]
Because Eris appeared to be larger than Pluto, its discoverers[20] and NASA initially described it as the Solar System's tenth planet. This, along with the prospect of other similarly sized objects being discovered in the future, motivated the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term planet for the first time. Under the IAU definition approved on August 24, 2006, Eris is a "dwarf planet", along with objects such as Pluto, Ceres, Haumea and Makemake.[21]
In 2010, preliminary results from observations of a stellar occultation by Eris on November 6 suggested that its diameter may be only 2,326 km, which would make it essentially the same diameter as Pluto.[22] Given the error bars in the different size estimates, it is currently uncertain whether Eris or Pluto has the larger diameter.[16] Both Pluto and Eris are estimated to have solid-body diameters of about 2330 km.[16]
Contents
Discovery
Eris was discovered by the team of Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz[2] on January 5, 2005, from images taken on October 21, 2003. The discovery was announced on July 29, 2005, the same day as Makemake and two days after Haumea,[23] due in part to events that would later lead to controversy about the latter. The search team had been systematically scanning for large outer Solar System bodies for several years, and had been involved in the discovery of several other large TNOs, including 50000 Quaoar, 90482 Orcus, and 90377 Sedna.Routine observations were taken by the team on October 21, 2003, using the 1.2 m Samuel Oschin Schmidt telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory, California, but the image of Eris was not discovered at that point due to its very slow motion across the sky: The team's automatic image-searching software excluded all objects moving at less than 1.5 arcseconds per hour to reduce the number of false positives returned. When Sedna was discovered, it was moving at 1.75 arcsec/h, and in light of that the team reanalyzed their old data with a lower limit on the angular motion, sorting through the previously excluded images by eye. In January 2005, the re-analysis revealed Eris's slow motion against the background stars.
Follow-up observations were then carried out to make a preliminary determination of Eris's orbit, which allowed the object's distance to be estimated. The team had planned to delay announcing their discoveries of the bright objects Eris and Makemake until further observations and calculations were complete, but announced them both on July 29 when the discovery of another large TNO they had been tracking, Haumea, was controversially announced on July 27 by a different team in Spain.[2]
More observations released in October 2005 revealed that Eris had a moon, later named Dysnomia. Observations of Dysnomia's orbit permitted scientists to determine the mass of Eris, which in June 2007 they calculated to be 1.66±0.02×1022 kg, 27% greater than Pluto's.
Classification
Eris is a plutoid, that is, a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet.[24] Its orbital characteristics more specifically categorize it a scattered-disk object (SDO), or a TNO that is believed to have been "scattered" from the Kuiper belt into more distant and unusual orbits following gravitational interactions with Neptune as the Solar System was forming. Although its high orbital inclination is unusual among the known SDOs, theoretical models suggest that objects that were originally near the inner edge of the Kuiper belt were scattered into orbits with higher inclinations than objects from the outer belt.[25] Inner-belt objects are expected to be generally more massive than outer-belt objects, and so astronomers expect to discover more large objects like Eris in high-inclination orbits, which have traditionally been neglected.Because Eris may be larger than Pluto, it was initially described as the "tenth planet" by NASA and in media reports of its discovery.[26] In response to the uncertainty over its status, and because of ongoing debate over whether Pluto should be classified as a planet, the IAU delegated a group of astronomers to develop a sufficiently precise definition of the term planet to decide the issue. This was announced as the IAU's Definition of a Planet in the Solar System, adopted on August 24, 2006. At this time, both Eris and Pluto were classified as dwarf planets, a category distinct from the new definition of planet.[27] Brown has since stated his approval of Pluto losing its status as a planet.[28] The IAU subsequently added Eris to its Minor Planet Catalogue, designating it (136199) Eris.[29]
Name
Eris is named after the goddess Eris (Greek Ἔρις), a personification of strife and discord.[30] The name was assigned on September 13, 2006, following an unusually long period in which the object was known by the provisional designation 2003 UB313, which was granted automatically by the IAU under their naming protocols for minor planets. The regular adjectival form of Eris is Eridian.Xena
Due to uncertainty over whether the object would be classified as a planet or a minor planet, because different nomenclature procedures apply to these different classes of objects,[31] the decision on what to name the object had to wait until after the August 24, 2006, IAU ruling.[29] As a result, for a time the object became known to the wider public as Xena."Xena" was an informal name used internally by the discovery team. It was inspired by the eponymous heroine of the television series Xena: Warrior Princess. The discovery team had reportedly saved the nickname "Xena" for the first body they discovered that was larger than Pluto. According to Brown,
"We assumed [that] a real name would come out fairly quickly, [but] the process got stalled," Mike Brown said in interview,We chose it since it started with an X (planet "X"), it sounds mythological (OK, so it's TV mythology, but Pluto is named after a cartoon, right?),[f] and (this part is actually true) we've been working to get more female deities out there (i.e. Sedna). Also, at the time, the TV show was still on TV, which shows you how long we've been searching![33]
One reporter called me up from the New York Times who happened to have been a friend of mine from college, [and] I was a little less guarded with him than I am with the normal press. He asked me, "What's the name you guys proposed?" and I said, "Well, I'm not going to tell." And he said, "Well, what do you guys call it when you're just talking amongst yourselves?"... As far as I remember this was the only time I told anybody this in the press, and then it got everywhere, which I only sorta felt bad about—I kinda like the name.[34]
Choosing an official name
According to science writer Govert Schilling, Brown initially wanted to call the object "Lila", after a concept in Hindu mythology that described the cosmos as the outcome of a game played by Brahma. The name was very similar to "Lilah", the name of Brown's newborn daughter. Brown was mindful of not making his name public before it had been officially accepted. He had done so with Sedna a year previously, and had been heavily criticised. However, he listed the address of his personal web page announcing the discovery as /~mbrown/planetlila and in the chaos following the controversy over the discovery of Haumea, forgot to change it. Rather than needlessly anger more of his fellow astronomers, he simply said that the webpage had been named for his daughter and dropped "Lila" from consideration.[36]Brown had also speculated that Persephone, the wife of the god Pluto, would be a good name for the object.[2] The name had been used several times in science fiction,[37] and was popular with the public, having handily won a poll conducted by New Scientist magazine ("Xena", despite only being a nickname, came fourth).[38] However, this was not possible once the object was classified as a dwarf planet, because there is already an asteroid with that name, 399 Persephone.[2] Because IAU regulations require a name from creation mythology for objects with orbital stability beyond Neptune's orbit, the team had also been considering such possibilities.[39]
With the dispute resolved, the discovery team proposed Eris on September 6, 2006. On September 13, 2006 this name was accepted as the official name by the IAU.[39][40] Brown decided that, because the object had been considered a planet for so long, it deserved a name from Greek or Roman mythology, like the other planets. However, the asteroids had taken the vast majority of Graeco-Roman names. Eris, whom Brown described as his favourite goddess, had fortunately escaped inclusion.[34] The name in part reflects the discord in the astronomical community caused by the debate over the object's (and Pluto's) nature.
Orbit
Eris has an orbital period of 557 years, and as of 2011 lies at 96.6 AUs from the Sun,[14] almost its maximum possible distance (its aphelion is 97.5 AU). It came to perihelion between 1698[5] and 1699,[41] to aphelion around 1977,[41] and will return to perihelion around 2256[41] to 2258.[42] Eris and its moon are currently the most distant known objects in the Solar System apart from long-period comets and space probes.[43] However, approximately forty known TNOs, most notably 2006 SQ372, 2000 OO67 and Sedna, though currently closer to the Sun than Eris, have greater average orbital distances than Eris's semimajor axis of 67.7 AU.[4]The Eridian orbit is highly eccentric, and brings Eris to within 37.9 AU of the Sun, a typical perihelion for scattered objects. This is within the orbit of Pluto, but still safe from direct interaction with Neptune (29.8–30.4 AU). Pluto, on the other hand, like other plutinos, follows a less inclined and less eccentric orbit and, protected by orbital resonance, can cross Neptune's orbit. It is possible that Eris is in a 17:5 resonance with Neptune, though further observations will be required to check that hypothesis.[44] Unlike the eight planets, whose orbits all lie roughly in the same plane as the Earth's, Eris's orbit is highly inclined: It is tilted at an angle of about 44 degrees to the ecliptic. In about 800 years, Eris will be closer to the Sun than Pluto for some time (see the graph at the right).
Eris currently has an apparent magnitude of 18.7, making it bright enough to be detectable to some amateur telescopes. A 200 mm telescope with a CCD can detect Eris under favourable conditions.[g] The reason it had not been noticed until now is its steep orbital inclination; most searches for large outer Solar System objects concentrate on the ecliptic plane, where most bodies are found.
Eris is now in the constellation Cetus. It was in Sculptor from 1876 until 1929 and Phoenix from roughly 1840 until 1875. In 2036 it will enter Pisces and stay there until 2065, when it will enter Aries.[41] It will then move into the northern sky, entering Perseus in 2128 and Camelopardalis (where it will reach its northernmost declination) in 2173. Also, because of the high inclination of its orbit, Eris only passes through a few constellations of the traditional Zodiac.
Size, mass and density
Year | Radius (Diameter) | Source |
---|---|---|
2005 | 1,199 (2,397) km[45] | Hubble |
2007 | 1,300 (2,600) km[46] | Spitzer |
2011 | 1,163 (2,326) km[8] | Occultation |
This makes Eris around the same size as Pluto, which is about 2,330 km across. It also indicates an albedo of 0.96, higher than that of any other large body in the Solar System except Enceladus.[8] It is speculated that the high albedo is due to the surface ices being replenished because of temperature fluctuations because Eris's eccentric orbit takes it closer and farther from the Sun.[49]
In 2007, a series of observations of the largest trans-Neptunian objects with the Spitzer Space Telescope gave an estimate of Eris's diameter of 2,600+400
−200 km.[46] The Spitzer and Hubble estimates overlap in the range of 2,400–2,500 km, 4–8% larger than Pluto. However, astronomers now suspect that Eris's spin axis is pointing toward the sun, at the moment—a possibility that would keep the sunlit hemisphere warmer than average and skew any infrared measurements toward higher values.[9] So the outcome from the 2010 Chile occultation is actually more in line with the Hubble result from 2005.[9]
In November 2010, Eris was the subject of one of the most distant stellar occultations yet achieved from Earth.[9] Preliminary data from this event cast doubt on previous size estimates.[9] The teams announced their final results from the occultation in October 2011, with an estimated diameter of 2,326+12
−12 km.[8] However, when using data from this event for comparison to Pluto, there is a range of figures available for Pluto's radius/diameter that can be selected.[50] This is due in part to Pluto's atmosphere that interferes with making measurements of its solid surface (as opposed to gaseous haze).[50] The mass of Eris can be calculated with much greater precision. Based on the currently accepted value for Dysnomia's period—15.774 days—[10][51] Eris is 27 percent more massive than Pluto. If the 2011 occultation results are used, then Eris has a density of 2.52±0.05 g cm−3; substantially denser than Pluto, and thus must be composed largely of rocky materials.[8]
Surface and atmosphere
The discovery team followed up their initial identification of Eris with spectroscopic observations made at the 8 m Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii on January 25, 2005. Infrared light from the object revealed the presence of methane ice, indicating that the surface may be similar to that of Pluto, which at the time was the only TNO known to have surface methane, and of Neptune's moon Triton, which also has methane on its surface.[52] Note that no surface details can be resolved from Earth or its orbit with any instrument currently available.Due to Eris's distant eccentric orbit, Eridian surface temperature is estimated to vary between about 30 and 56 kelvin (−243 and −217 degrees Celsius).[2]
Unlike the somewhat reddish Pluto and Triton, however, Eris appears almost grey.[2] Pluto's reddish colour is believed to be due to deposits of tholins on its surface, and where these deposits darken the surface, the lower albedo leads to higher temperatures and the evaporation of methane deposits. In contrast, Eris is far enough away from the Sun that methane can condense onto its surface even where the albedo is low. The condensation of methane uniformly over the surface reduces any albedo contrasts and would cover up any deposits of red tholins.[53]
Even though Eris can be up to three times farther from the Sun than Pluto, it approaches close enough that some of the ices on the surface might warm enough to sublime. Because methane is highly volatile, its presence shows either that Eris has always resided in the distant reaches of the Solar System where it is cold enough for methane ice to persist, or that the celestial body has an internal source of methane to replenish gas that escapes from its atmosphere. This contrasts with observations of another discovered TNO, Haumea, which reveal the presence of water ice but not methane.[54]
Moon
Main article: Dysnomia (moon)
In 2005, the adaptive optics team at the Keck telescopes in Hawaii carried out observations of the four brightest TNOs (Pluto, Makemake, Haumea, and Eris), using the newly commissioned laser guide star adaptive optics system.[55] Images taken on September 10 revealed a moon in orbit around Eris. In keeping with the "Xena" nickname already in use for Eris, Brown's team nicknamed the moon "Gabrielle",
after the television warrior princess's sidekick. When Eris received
its official name from the IAU, the moon received the name Dysnomia, after the Greek goddess of lawlessness
who was Eris's daughter. Brown says he picked it for similarity to his
wife's name, Diane. The name also retains an oblique reference to Eris's
old informal name Xena, portrayed on TV by Lucy Lawless.[56]See also
- Astronomical naming conventions
- Clearing the neighbourhood
- International Astronomical Union
- Planets beyond Neptune
Notes
- Jump up ^ Images were taken on October 21, 2003, however the object was not detected and identified until 2005.
- Jump up ^ EER-is or ERR-is.[6] Both are common; the former is the literary pronunciation of the name, but Brown and his students use the latter.[7]
- ^ Jump up to: a b It is, however, only the 16th most massive body in the Solar System over all, because 7 moons are more massive.
- Jump up ^ According to most recent estimates, Eris is ~1% larger[8] and 25% more massive than Pluto.[10] Given the error bars in the different diameter estimates, it is currently unknown whether Eris or Pluto has the larger diameter.[16] Both Pluto and Eris are estimated to have solid-body diameters of about 2330 km.[16]
- Jump up ^ As of 2011, Sedna is 87.3 AU from the Sun,[18] whereas Eris is 96.6 AU from the Sun.[14] Eris is near its aphelion (furthest distance from the Sun), whereas Sedna is nearing its 2076 perihelion (closest approach to the Sun).[19] Sedna will overtake Eris as the farthest presently known spherical minor planet in 2114.[19]
- Jump up ^ Brown is joking on this point. It was in fact the Disney character Pluto that was named after the newly discovered "planet", though Venetia Phair, Pluto's christener, had to counter accusations her whole life that she named the planet after a cartoon dog.[32]
- Jump up ^ For an example of an amateur image of Eris, see Fred Bruenjes' Astronomy
- Jump up ^ The Resolution of the High Resolution Channel of the ACS is 40 marcsec (milliarcseconds) and the size of 1 pixel is ~25 marcsec i.e. ~1875 km at the distance of Eris.
- Jump up ^ The reference to 'direct' measure by HST should not mislead into thinking that this method is as 'direct' and model-independent as measuring say Neptune's size. Basically, the method consists in finding the statistically best fit to a smeared image of the size of less than 2 pixels by comparing it with smeared images of the background stars, using a given computer model of the optics (PSF). A non technical description of the method is given on Brown's page, a detailed description of this approach and its limitations are discussed in a paper on Quaoar[48]
References
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- ^ Jump up to: a b c d "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 136199 Eris (2003 UB313)". 2009-11-20 last obs. Retrieved 2012-08-08. Archived from the original on 2012-08-08
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- Jump up ^ Calculated based on the known parameters
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- Jump up ^ M. E. Brown, E.L. Schaller, H.G. Roe, D. L. Rabinowitz, C. A. Trujillo (2006). "Direct measurement of the size of 2003 UB313 from the Hubble Space Telescope" (PDF). The Astronomical Journal 643 (2): L61–L63. arXiv:astro-ph/0604245. Bibcode:2006ApJ...643L..61B. doi:10.1086/504843.
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- Jump up ^ "Gemini Observatory Shows That "10th Planet" Has a Pluto-Like Surface". Gemini Observatory. 2005. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
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- Jump up ^ J. Licandro, W. M. Grundy, N. Pinilla-Alonso, P. Leisy (2006). "Visible spectroscopy of 2003 UB313: evidence for N2 ice on the surface of the largest TNO". Astronomy and Astrophysics 458 (1): L5–L8. arXiv:astro-ph/0608044. Bibcode:2006A&A...458L...5L. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20066028.
- Jump up ^ Brown, M. E.; Van Dam, M. A.; Bouchez, A. H.; Le Mignant, D.; Campbell, R. D.; Chin, J. C. Y.; Conrad, A.; Hartman, S. K.; Johansson, E. M.; Lafon, R. E.; Rabinowitz, D. L. Rabinowitz; Stomski, P. J., Jr.; Summers, D. M.; Trujillo, C. A.; Wizinowich, P. L. (2006). "Satellites of the Largest Kuiper Belt Objects" (PDF). The Astrophysical Journal 639 (1): L43–L46. arXiv:astro-ph/0510029. Bibcode:2006ApJ...639L..43B. doi:10.1086/501524. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- Jump up ^ Tytell, David (2006). "All Hail Eris and Dysnomia". Sky and Telescope. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eris |
- MPC Database entry for (136199) Eris
- Michael Brown's webpage about Eris
- Brown's webpage about Dysnomia
- 2007 KCET interview of Mike Brown about Eris and Haumea with Julia Sweeney
- compiled list of data
- MPEC listing for 2003 UB313
- Java 3D orbit visualization
- Spaceflight Now article about 2003 UB313 (Eris), 2003 EL61, and 2005 FY9 (Makemake)
- Slacker Astronomy Interview With Co-Discoverer Trujillo
- Trans-Neptunian Object 2003 UB313—IAU statement regarding the planetary status of Eris
- Simulation of 2003 UB313's orbit
- Keck observatory page about the discovery of Dysnomia
- Caltech Press Release, 7/29/2005 "Planetary Scientists Discover Tenth Planet".
- Press release on the Spitzer Space Telescope trying to image 2003 UB313 again
Dysnomia (moon)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFor other uses, see Dysnomia (disambiguation).
Dysnomia, officially (136199) Eris I Dysnomia (Greek: Δυσνομία), is the only known moon of the dwarf planet Eris (the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System). It was discovered in 2005 by Mike Brown and the laser guide star adaptive optics team at the W. M. Keck Observatory, and carried the provisional designation of S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1 until officially named Dysnomia[7] (from the Ancient Greek word Δυσνομία meaning "lawlessness") after the daughter of the Greek goddess Eris.Dysnomia Dysnomia, to the left, and Eris, center
(Hubble Space Telescope)Discovery Discovered by Michael E. Brown, M. A. van Dam, A. H. Bouchez, D. Le Mignant, R. D. Campbell, J. C. Y. Chin, A. Conrad, S. K. Hartman, E. M. Johansson, R. E. Lafon, D. L. Rabinowitz, P. J. Stomski Jr., D. M. Summers, C. A. Trujillo, and P. L. Wizinowich[1] Discovery date September 10, 2005[1] Designations MPC designation (136199) Eris I Dysnomia Pronunciation /dɪsˈnoʊmiə/ or /daɪsˈnoʊmiə/[a] Alternative names S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1 Adjective Dysnomian Orbital characteristics [2] Semi-major axis 37,350±140 km Eccentricity < 0.013 Orbital period 15.774±0.002 d Inclination 142±3 ° Satellite of Eris Physical characteristics Equatorial radius 342±25 km (albedo five times lower than Eris's)[3]
175–245 km[4]
50–125 km[b][5]Apparent magnitude ~23.1[6] Absolute magnitude (H) ~3.2[c][4][6]
Discovery
During 2005, the adaptive optics team at the Keck telescopes in Hawaii carried out observations of the four brightest Kuiper belt objects (Pluto, Makemake, Haumea, and Eris), using the newly commissioned laser guide star adaptive optics system. Observations taken on 10 September revealed a moon in orbit around Eris, provisionally designated S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1. In keeping with the Xena nickname that was already in use for Eris, the moon was nicknamed "Gabrielle" by its discoverers, after Xena's sidekick.[8][9]
Properties
Dysnomia was found 4.43 magnitudes fainter than Eris,[4][6] and its diameter is estimated to be between 350 and 490 km,[4] though Mike Brown claims that it is 500 times fainter and between 100 and 250 km in diameter.[5] It is 60 times fainter than Eris in the K' band and 480 times fainter in the V band, which means a very different, and quite redder, spectrum, indicating a significantly darker surface.[10] Assuming its albedo is five times lower than Eris's, its diameter would be 685±50 km.[3]
Combining Keck and Hubble observations, the satellite was used to determine the mass of Eris, and orbital parameters were estimated. Its orbital period is calculated to be 15.774±0.002 d.[2] These observations indicate that Dysnomia has a circular orbit around Eris, with a radius of 37,350±140 km.[2] This shows that the mass of Eris is 1.27 times that of Pluto.[2]
Formation
Astronomers now know that three of the four brightest Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) have satellites. Among the fainter members of the belt only about 10% are known to have satellites. This is believed to imply that collisions between large KBOs have been frequent in the past. Impacts between bodies of the order of 1000 km across would throw off large amounts of material which would coalesce into a moon. A similar mechanism is believed to have led to the formation of Earth's own Moon when the Earth was struck by a giant impactor early in the history of the Solar System.
Name
Mike Brown, the moon's discoverer, chose the name Dysnomia (Greek: Δυσνομία) due to a number of associations it had for him. Dysnomia, the daughter of Eris, fits the general historically established pattern of naming moons after lesser gods associated with the primary (hence, Jupiter's largest moons are named after lovers of Jupiter, while Saturn's are named after his fellow Titans). Also, the English translation of "Dysnomia", "lawlessness", echoes Lucy Lawless, the actress famous for starring in Xena: Warrior Princess on television. Before receiving their official names, Eris and Dysnomia were known informally as "Xena" and "Gabrielle", and Brown decided to retain that connection.
Brown also notes that Pluto owes its name in part to its first two letters, which form the initials of Percival Lowell, the founder of the observatory where its discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh, was working, and the person who inspired the search for "Planet X". James Christy, who discovered Charon, followed the principle established with Pluto by choosing a name which shared its first four letters with his wife's name, Charlene. "Dysnomia", similarly, has the same first letter as Brown's wife, Diane,[11] and Brown uses the nickname "Dy" /ˈdaɪ/ for the moon, which he pronounces the same as his wife's nickname, Di. Because of this, Brown pronounces the full name /daɪsˈnoʊmiə/, with a long "y".[12]
In addition, both Eris and Dysnomia, representing aspects of chaos, reflect the effect their existence had in the disputation on the definition of a planet (and specifically on the status of Pluto and Ceres), and the debate that followed.
Notes
- Jump up ^ dis-NOH-mee-ə or dys-NOH-mee-ə. The first is the normal mythological pronunciation, the latter is used by Brown.
- Jump up ^ According to Michael E. Brown, it is 500 times fainter.
- Jump up ^ Dysnomia was found 4.43±0.05 mag fainter than Eris. With H = −1.19 for Eris, this gives H ≈ 3.2 for Dysnomia.
References
- ^ Jump up to: a b Brown, M. E.; et al. (2006). "Satellites of the Largest Kuiper Belt Objects". Astrophysical Journal Letters 639 (1): L43. arXiv:astro-ph/0510029. Bibcode:2006ApJ...639L..43B. doi:10.1086/501524. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Brown, M. E.; Schaller, E. L. (2007). "The Mass of Dwarf Planet Eris". Science 316 (5831): 1585. Bibcode:2007Sci...316.1585B. doi:10.1126/science.1139415. PMID 17569855.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Santos-Sanz, P.; et al. (2012). ""TNOs are Cool": A Survey of the Transneptunian Region IV. Size/albedo characterization of 15 scattered disk and detached objects observed with Herschel Space Observatory-PACS". arXiv:1202.1481 [astro-ph.EP].
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Johnston, W. R. (30 December 2008). "(136199) Eris and Dysnomia". Johnston's Archive. Retrieved 2012-04-12.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Brown, M. E. (14 June 2007). "Dysnomia, the moon of Eris". Caltech. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Green, D. W. E. (4 October 2005). "S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1". IAU Circular 8610. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
- Jump up ^ Green, D. W. E. (13 September 2006). "(134340) Pluto, (136199) Eris, and (136199) Eris I (Dysnomia)". IAU Circular 8747. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
- Jump up ^ Zabarenko, D. (3 October 2005). "Planet Xena has moon called Gabrielle". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- Jump up ^ Ingham, R. (2 February 2006). "'Tenth planet' Xena bigger than Pluto". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- Jump up ^ Sicardy, B.; et al. (2011). "A Pluto-like radius and a high albedo for the dwarf planet Eris from an occultation". Nature 478 (7370): 493–496. Bibcode:2011Natur.478..493S. doi:10.1038/nature10550. PMID 22031441.
- Jump up ^ Tytell, D. (14 September 2006). "All Hail Eris and Dysnomia". Sky & Telescope. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- Jump up ^ "Julia Sweeney and Michael E. Brown". Hammer Conversations: KCET podcast. 2007. 42 min 12 sec. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
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