Xena News

Here is some information about the status of Xena as planet,
from Mike Brown, one of its discoverers (it is now certain
that Xena, who was discovered in 2005, is bigger than Pluto):

: How will the planetary status be decided?

Chris Mitchell...

As a slight aside, what a shame that the "Black Astronomers" page
neglects to mention mixed-race Percy Seymour, that rare beast an
astonomer who respects astrology. His book "The Scienfitic Proof of
Astrology" has outraged astronomers, of course, so perhaps he isn't
flavour of the month with them! He's from South Africa originally,
though he now lives in the UK - so he would definitely classify as
part of the "African Diaspora", I would have thought!

[...]
: The official decision will come from the International Astronomical Union.
: We had hoped for a timely decision but we instead appear to be stuck in
: committee limbo. Here is the story, as best I can reconstruct it from the
: hints and rumors that I hear:
:
: * A special committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) was
: charged with determining "what is a planet."
: * Sometime around the end of 2005, this committee voted by a narrow margin
: for the "pluto and everything bigger" definition, or something close to it.
: * The exectutive committee of the IAU then decided to ask the Division of Planetary
: Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society to make a reccomendation.
: * The DPS asked their committee to look in to it.
: * The DPS committee decided to form a special committee.
: * Rumor has emerged that when the IAU general assembly meets in August in Prauge
: they willl make a decision on __how to make a final decision!__
:
: So when do we expect a decision? Back in August 2005 I used to joke that the IAU
: was so slow they might take until 2006 before deciding. That was supposed to be
: a joke. Now I joke that I hope there is a decision by the time my daughter starts
: grade school and learns about planets in class. She is currently 7 months old.

The focus is - as also indicated by misspelling - on Prague.

And, obviously, as a very much (Saturn in) Leo theme, the most
important question is exactly how to make a final decision.

Once that decision is made and (and assuming that it will be done
wisely, in a timeless manner that orients itself more on nature
than on contemporary cultural fashion), deciding the individual
fates of new objects (already discovered or not) will be fairly
easy and more relaxed from that time on...