The Sisyphus Comments

Dwarfs, Planets and Fertility Godessess

CopCAST correspondent Sara Roberts, who is a resident of Hawaii, sent me a note to let me know that a new dwarf planet has been discovered in our solar system. What she really wanted to mention was that the folks at the International Astronomical Union in Paris named it Haumea, after the Hawaiian goddess of earth and fertility.

This dwarf planet thing has really messed up my astronomical knowledge. I remember going to all the trouble of learning the planets in our solar system and then years later (I’m not going to say how many years), the powers that be decided that Pluto was not a “real” planet and re-designated it as a dwarf planet. I wonder if that demotion included a drop in pay. Of course, now Pluto has to hang around with the other dwarf planets including Ceres, Eris and Makemake.

Just when I thought I had the solar system nailed down again, along comes a new kid on the block – the elongated egg shaped Haumea. Astronomers postulate that its shape comes from its rapid rotation, which is possibly the result of a collision with another object billions of years ago. Will this learning stuff ever end?