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According To Science Writer

1) Brown initially wanted to call the object "Lila" after a Hindu concept, but the name was too similar to his newborn daughter's name so he dropped it from consideration. 2) Brown had also considered naming the object Persephone after the wife of Pluto, but that name was already taken by an asteroid. 3) With the dispute resolved, the discovery team proposed the name Eris, which was accepted by the IAU as it was a Greek name like other planets and Eris had caused strife, similar to the object.

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23 views1 page

According To Science Writer

1) Brown initially wanted to call the object "Lila" after a Hindu concept, but the name was too similar to his newborn daughter's name so he dropped it from consideration. 2) Brown had also considered naming the object Persephone after the wife of Pluto, but that name was already taken by an asteroid. 3) With the dispute resolved, the discovery team proposed the name Eris, which was accepted by the IAU as it was a Greek name like other planets and Eris had caused strife, similar to the object.

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Babaian Daniel
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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According to science writer Govert Schilling, Brown initially wanted to call the object "Lila", after a

concept in Hindu mythology that described the cosmos as the outcome of a game played
by Brahman.[30] The name was very similar to "Lilah", the name of Brown's newborn daughter.
Brown was mindful of not making his name public before it had been officially accepted. He had
done so with Sedna a year previously, and had been heavily criticized. However, no objection
was raised to the Sedna name other than the breach of protocol, and no competing names were
suggested for Sedna.[42]
He listed the address of his personal web page announcing the discovery
as /~mbrown/planetlila and in the chaos following the controversy over the discovery of Haumea,
forgot to change it. Rather than needlessly anger more of his fellow astronomers, he simply said
that the webpage had been named for his daughter and dropped "Lila" from consideration. [30]
Brown had also speculated that Persephone, the wife of the god Pluto, would be a good name for
the object.[2] The name had been used several times in science fiction,[43] and was popular with the
public, having handily won a poll conducted by New Scientist magazine ("Xena", despite only
being a nickname, came fourth).[44] This was not possible once the object was classified as a
dwarf planet, because there is already an asteroid with that name, 399 Persephone.[2]
With the dispute resolved, the discovery team proposed Eris on September 6, 2006. On
September 13, 2006 this name was accepted as the official name by the IAU. [45][46] Brown decided
that, because the object had been considered a planet for so long, it deserved a name
from Greek or Roman mythology, like the other planets. The asteroids had taken the vast majority
of Graeco-Roman names. Eris, whom Brown described as his favorite goddess, had fortunately
escaped inclusion.[41] "Eris caused strife and discord by causing quarrels among people", said
Brown in 2006, "and that's what this one has done too". [47]

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