Moon
In 2005, the adaptive optics team at the Keck telescopes in Hawaii carried out observations of the four brightest TNOs (Pluto, Makemake, Haumea, and Eris), using the newly commissioned laser guide star adaptive optics system. Images taken on September 10 revealed a moon in orbit around Eris. In keeping with the "Xena" nickname already in use for Eris, Brown's team nicknamed the moon "Gabrielle", after the television warrior princess's sidekick. When Eris received its official name from the IAU, the moon received the name Dysnomia, after the Greek goddess of lawlessness who was Eris's daughter. Brown says he picked it for similarity to his wife's name, Diane. The name also retains an oblique reference to Eris's old informal name Xena, portrayed on TV by Lucy Lawless.
Read more about this topic: Eris (dwarf Planet)
Famous quotes containing the word moon:
“Sad men made angels of the sun, and of
The moon they made their own attendant ghosts,
Which led them back to angels, after death.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“I’ve no time now, but believe me as surely as the moon will set and the sun will rise I shall kill you tomorrow night. I shall kill you even if you hide in the deepest cave of the earth. At ten o’clock tomorrow night, I shall kill you.”
—R.C. Sherriff (1896–1975)
“There are two kinds of adventurers: those who go truly hoping to find adventure and those who go secretly hoping they won’t.”
—William Least Heat Moon [William Trogdon] (b. 1939)