What did they name the new 3 or 2 planets that were just discovered?

Question

Do you know any interesting facts about them?

Answer 1

the international astronomical union seems to be going to define planet as any body which has a minimum mass of about 5 x 10e+20 kg, so it's spherical, orbits a star, and has less mass than a brown dwarf. this means that one asteroid, ceres, and pluto, charon, and 2003 UB313 (the official name of xena) will be categorized as planets. pluto, charon, 2003 UB313 will be called plutons.

look here:
http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0601/iau0601_release.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt

Answer 2

The new planets were not just discovered. Rather, known bodies may now be considered planets due to a new definition. Because the objects are already well known, they already have names in some cases. Ceres is an asteroid that has been known for about two hundred years. It was originally considered a planet, and then was demoted after many other asteroids were discovered in nearby orbits. Charon has been known for several decades, but has been considered the moon of Pluto until now. 2003 UB313 was only discovered last year, so it doesn't have an official name yet.

Answer 3

Pluto and Charon

Pluto (38 AU average) is officially the solar system's smallest planet, though astronomers also consider it part of the Kuiper belt population. Like other objects in the Kuiper belt, Pluto has a relatively eccentric orbit inclined 17 degrees to the ecliptic plane and ranging from 29.7 AU from the Sun at perihelion (within the orbit of Neptune) to 49.5 AU at aphelion.Pluto has a large moon (the largest in the solar system relative to its own size), called Charon, as well as two much smaller moons called Nix and Hydra. Pluto and Charon are often considered a double planet, since both orbit a common barycenter between the two bodies.

Kuiper belt objects which, like Pluto, possess a 3:2 orbital resonance with Neptune (ie, they orbit twice for every three Neptunian orbits) are called Plutinos. Other Kuiper belt objects have different resonant orbits (2:1, 4:7, 3:5 etc) and are grouped accordingly. The remaining Kuiper belt objects, in more "classical" orbits, are classified as Cubewanos.

2003 UB313 ("Xena")

2003 UB313 and its moonOne particular scattered disc object has renewed the old debate about what constitutes a planet since it is at least 5% larger than Pluto with an estimated diameter of 2400 km (1500 mi). It currently has no name, but has been given the provisional designation 2003 UB313, though its discoverers have nicknamed it "Xena", after the television character.

The object has many similarities with Pluto: its orbit is highly eccentric, with a perihelion of 38.2 AU (roughly Pluto's distance from the Sun) and an aphelion of 97.6 AU, and is steeply inclined to the ecliptic plane, at 44 degrees, more so than any known object in the solar system except the newly-discovered object 2004 XR190, also known as "Buffy". Like Pluto, it is believed to consist largely of rock and ice, and has a moon.

Sedna

Sedna is a large, reddish Pluto-like object with a gigantic, highly elliptical 10,500-year orbit that takes it from about 76 AU at perihelion to 928 AU at aphelion. Mike Brown, who discovered the object in 2003, asserts that it cannot be part of the scattered disc or the Kuiper Belt as it has too distant a perihelion to have been affected by Neptune's migration. He and other astronomers consider it to be the first in an entirely new population, one which also may include the object 2000 CR105, which has a perihelion of 45 AU, an aphelion of 415 AU, and an orbital period of 3420 years.

Answer 4

Further to DavidK93's answer, a couple more facts:

The third planet, 2003 UB313, is unofficially called Xena (after Xena the Warrior Princess) by its discoverer.

The earth's moon is slowly drifting away from earth... in a couple of billion years time it will have moved far enough away to be orbiting a point just outside the earth, and, under the new definition, will then become a planet. Of course, we might have a new definition by then.

Answer 5

Xena, Ceres, Charon