July 29

On this date, in 2005, Astronomers Michael Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz made a joint announcement that that they had determined that 2003 UB313 was not merely a large trans-Neptunian object but was actually the 10th planet in our Solar System. The astronomers have been bandying around the names Xena and Lila for their find. The matter has been submitted to the International Astronomical Union (What a very cool name!) for consideration of the official name for this planet, if it is indeed a planet, it could be just a piece of space rubbish. If it is just rubbish, it’s a heck of a lot of rubbish because the darn thing is bigger than Pluto, not that that is saying a great deal. The IAU has yet to make a determination on a couple of details: 1) the name and, and perhaps more importantly 2) whether or not the darn thing is even a planet. Personally, I’m rooting for the astronomers’ choice of Xena, because Lucy Lawless was so good in that show. I’m not terribly concerned about the IAU declaring that it isn’t a planet. After all, once you give something a name, you’re more or less stuck with it, sort of like a wayward kitten that suddenly appears on your porch and you start calling it Pickles after feeding it for a while. The next thing you know, you’re running down to Petland Discounts and picking up catnip mice and a soft brush.