| |
|
I didn't know all planets and planetoids were OFFICIALLY supposed to be named after gods of mythology - cool!
----------------------
Tiny planetoid named after rain god
Monday, September 15, 2003 Posted: 11:02 AM EDT (1502 GMT)
CNN.com
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Huya, the rain god in Venezuelan Wayuu Indian culture, has been granted a place beside his counterparts Jupiter, Mars and Venus.
Venezuelan astronomers led by physicist Ignacio Ferrin recently named the frozen planetoid 2000 EB173 -- which they discovered in March 200O -- after the deity.
The tiny space object, which is beyond Pluto and takes 256 years to orbit the Sun, must be named after a mythological god under guidelines set by the International Astronomical Union, according to Ferrin.
In March, after determining its orbit, the Venezuelan scientists baptized the light-red planet Juya but later changed the name to Huya to avoid phonetic confusion in the English pronunciation of the name.
"We wanted to make sure it had the connotations of a Venezuelan indigenous god," Ferrin said.
Huya is most likely a Kuiper Belt Object, one of a swarm of icy boulders in the icy outskirts of the solar system. The object's surface temperatures is estimated at around 292 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (180 degrees below zero Celsius). It has a diameter of around 435 to 466 miles (700 to 750 km).
Ferrin, a professor at the University of the Andes, said he felt like explorer Christopher Columbus discovering uncharted lands when his team at the Center of Astronomical Investigations came across the planet.
"I don't think we can see it, but science indicates that we cannot be alone in the universe. It's like thinking there is only one elephant in the jungle," he said. |
|
|
