Now I hear the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has come up with a name for objects like Pluto and Eris that are much bigger than Mars-Jupiter asteroids but not large enough to call planets. If they are in the Kuiper Belt, then they will be called "plutoids". Plutoids??? They tried "pluton" earlier, but that makes it sound like an elementary particle, and it is the word for Pluto in some languages, including Spanish. So that fizzled.
Now I know that the small objects mostly between Mars and Jupiter were called "asteroids"; or "aster" meaning star and "oid", means like but not quite. The name implies that they are some kind of near star, however, like a brown dwarf. Since they are a near planet instead, they are also called planetoids. And while writing this, with brown dwarfs, plutoids, and KBOs, I began to think that this is getting curiouser and curiouser, like Alice going down the Rabbit Black Hole and finding all these strange creatures running around.
But can we apply this type of terminology all over the place? A while ago, asteroids in video games were called "roids", taking just the last symbol. That name can also apply to planetoids, steroids, and a number of other oids; it is quite ambiguous. So I should think that astronomers should get out of the oid game, instead of calling big KBOs "plutoids". What's next? Are other stars in the universe going to be called "sunoids"?
I think the IAU would be better off finding names for Easterbunny (2005 FY9) and Santa (2003 EL61), two objects that have been discovered years ago but not received any official name. It's been three years now. I read that both need to be named after creation deities, and that Santa was going to be named after a Hawaiian one. So I looked up Hawaiian creation myths and found that Kane created the world, according to Hawaiian legend. That's pronounced Con-Neigh and has nothing to do with the Citizen by that name. I've waited long enough. I am going to call Santa from now on Kane, and its two moons Pele and Hiiaka. If more time passes, I am also going to give Easterbunny a name.
