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posted by martyb on Monday February 24 2020, @12:36AM   Printer-friendly

2007 OR10 is now known as 225088 Gonggong, and its moon has been named Xiangliu:

Not far behind Pluto, the fifth-largest dwarf planet in the solar system hasn't had a name since it was discovered in 2007. It's just been hanging out beyond Neptune under the boring catalog designation 2007 OR10.

Well, that's officially changed as the previously largest unnamed body in the solar system is now officially Gonggong, named for a Chinese water god with the head of a human and the body of a snake.

And as a cool bonus, the tiny moon that orbits Gongong is named Xiangliu, after the minister that attended to the deity in Chinese folklore. The pair make up the first major solar system bodies to have Chinese names, according to astrophysicist Simon Porter.

Minor Planet Center.

See also: Seven Worlds in the Solar System That Could Be Just As Weird As Pluto

Standing on its surface, the icy ground would look dark and red, like Pluto. Indeed, 2007 OR10 is one of the reddest worlds astronomers know of. That reddish hue hints at the presence of complex organic compounds astronomers call tholins.

[...] Research published in 2011 [open, DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/738/2/L26] [DX] also showed that 2007 OR10 has a fresh surface covered in water ice. Astronomers think it's evidence of cryovolcanoes, where slushy ice erupts from below the surface like lava.

Previously: Large Moon Confirmed Around Slowly Rotating Dwarf Planet 2007 OR10
Public Asked to Vote on a Name for Dwarf Planet 2007 OR10


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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday February 24 2020, @08:18PM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 24 2020, @08:18PM (#961973) Journal

    a) that sends me to a page that requires javascript, so I won't use it
    b) I'm not after a translation, but rather a reasonable way to pronounce it. (After all, it's a personification's name. What it means is secondary.)

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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday February 24 2020, @08:32PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday February 24 2020, @08:32PM (#961979) Journal

    The page has a soundbite that pronounces it for you. You'd have to click on it to hear it.

    You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

    Here's another similarly useless quote for you:

    From the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 相柳 (Xiāngliǔ).

    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Xiangliu [wiktionary.org]

    I assume, the latter bit of this quote is the pronunciation of the name, if you knew how to speak Chinese:

    Xiangliu /ʃæŋˈljuː/,

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangliu_(moon) [wikipedia.org]

    I certainly don't, but the Google Translate soundbite seemed pretty reasonable to me.

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