One of my guilty pleasures a few krells ago was hacking into Earth television waves to watch the weekly TV adventures of “Xena: Warrior Princess”. So, it was nice to know her following remained strong enough to support naming our newest “discovered” planet for her — old 2003UB313. Well, once enough Earthling scientists got around to agreeing it was a planet and not just a misbegotten moon or some snarky space debris.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll keep saying it till the Quoobs come home: I hate how Earthlings are “discovering” things a lot of us already knew were there. That’s some conceit.
Something called “German scientists” who used a telescope in the Earth country of Spain for their work have just announced that not only has this heavenly body — the one out here near Us, not the one on TV — measured up to planet size, with a 1,860-mile diameter that makes it larger than nearest planetary neighbor Pluto, it also has its own moon.
Don’t go booking any travel out this way, though. You might think the weather here on Charon and over on Pluto is cold. Well, Xena is an icy, rocky world so far from our sun that it would appear like a mere light speck if viewed from Xena.
Oh, and Xenaphiles might like to know that the new planet’s moon is nicknamed Gabrielle in honor of Xena’s blonde sidekick/biographer. How’s that for symmetry?
