Pluto's killer renamed: Eris

All fans of Lucy Lawless will have to accept the fact that the largest dwarf planet is no longer called

• 2003 UB_{313} (nicknamed Xena)

but rather

• 136199 Eris (nickname Eris).

Its moon, formerly known as Gabrielle, is now known as Dysnomia. Recall that Eris, an object larger than Pluto, was the main reason why Pluto was eventually downgraded to a dwarf planet.

The demotion of Pluto has ignited a lot of public discord. That makes a good case for the new name because Eris is the Greek goddess of discord - the nemesis of Harmonia.



If you have forgotten, by now, what is the new name of the moon, don't worry: a marked difficulty in remembering names is called dysnomia, too. ;-)

According to the page you will see if you click the picture, Eris often helped her brother Ares to cause quarrels and lawlessness. So the name "Lawless" can still be found in the description of the new name of the planet. In fact, it is even more striking with Dysnomia who was also a daughter of Eris: Dysnomia is actually translated as lawlessness. ;-)