Xena joins Pluto as a Planet

A team of German scientists have discovered what they're calling a new planet in the Kuiper belt. This chunk of ice orbits the Sun at a distance of 9 billion miles, three times further out than Pluto. (Xena's orbital radius is roughly 100 times that of the Earth).

A ball of ice and dust found last year in the outskirts of the solar system is 30 percent wider than Pluto, a team of German astronomers is reporting today.

The finding definitively makes the icy ball -- temporarily labeled 2003 UB313 and nicknamed Xena -- the largest known object to be discovered orbiting Earth's sun since Neptune was identified in 1846 and adds to the debate over what should be considered a planet.

Obviously, this team should get out more. To describe Xena as "30 percent wider" than Pluto can bring only trouble.

Another possibility is to arbitrarily call anything larger than Pluto a planet.

Bertoldi preferred to keep Pluto as a planet and to bestow planethood on Xena.

"I don't want to downgrade Pluto as not a planet," he said. "It would be impolite."

Bertoldi's got rather a distorted conception of politeness.