The newly discovered Kuiper Belt Object known as Xena sounded intriguing, so with prodding from the folks at PlanetWaves.net, I contacted one of the discoverers, Dr. Mike Brown of California Institute of Technology. He is a nice guy, and he answered my questions:
Is the object code-named Xena a planet in your opinion or could it be a cubewano or a plutino?
Definitely a planet.
Whatever it is, it's pretty big, relatively speaking. Is it really the largest thing past Pluto? Where did it come from?
It's the largest thing we know past Neptune. There will certainly be larger ones found in the future.
Any chance that it has any orbital anomalies we should know about, a la Planet X? ;)
As far as we can tell, no. It follows a regular orbit back to 1954, which is the earliest we have seen it.
What made you pick the name Xena?
We started this survey back when Xena was on TV. We were looking for a mythological name that started with an X. We also wanted a female name, since it seems there are too few female planets.
What name suggestion will you propose to the IAU, or does it work that way? Must the IAU follow guidelines in selecting a name?
I can't tell!
Have you seen the object Xena? What did it look like?
Faint, gray.
What's your take on the planetary definition debate?
I write alot about it at www.lilahsplanet.com
To what do you owe your success in being in on the discovery of so many new objects lately?
Access to really nice telescopes!
hope that helps!
mike
For more information, go here: http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/index.html
This report co-filed with PlanetWaves.net, a fabulous astrology site.