Eris is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System,
slightly smaller by volume than the dwarf planet Pluto, although it is
27 percent more massive. Discovered in January 2005 by a team based at
Palomar Observatory, it was named after Eris, the Greek goddess of
strife and discord. The ninth-most-massive object directly orbiting the
Sun, Eris is the largest object in the Solar System that has not been
visited by a spacecraft. It is a member of a high-eccentricity
population known as the scattered disk and has one known moon, Dysnomia.
It is about 96 astronomical units (14.4 billion kilometres;
8.9 billion miles) from the Sun, roughly three times as far away as
Pluto. Except for some long-period comets, Eris and Dysnomia were the
most distant known natural objects in the Solar System until 2018 VG18
was discovered in 2018. Observations of a stellar occultation by Eris in
2010 showed that its diameter was 2,326 ± 12 kilometers
(1,445.3 ± 7.5 mi).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_%28dwarf_planet%29>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1818:
French physicist Augustin Fresnel submitted a memoir on the
diffraction of light to the Royal Academy of Sciences, which provided
strong support for the wave theory of light.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel>
1900:
Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci assassinated King
Umberto I of Italy in Monza.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetano_Bresci>
1950:
Korean War: U.S. forces concluded a four-day massacre of
hundreds of civilians through shootings and air attacks near the village
of Nogeun-ri, sparked by fears that North Korean soldiers were
infiltrating refugee columns.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Gun_Ri_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
smocking:
(sewing) An embroidery technique in which the fabric is gathered and
then embroidered with decorative stitches to hold the gathers in place;
the product of the use of this embroidery technique.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smocking>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But
if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
--Don Marquis
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Don_Marquis>