A planet, I mean. In case you haven't heard already, back in July some scientists named a possible tenth planet Xena. Now they've discovered the planet has a moon. The scientists--good geeks, all of them--named the moon Gabrielle. There is some debate on whether Xena is really a planet at all, but since I still think of Pluto as a planet I am not the best person to fill you in on that argument.

In addition to the "maybe not a planet" issue, I discovered another potential roadblock to claiming Planet Xena. As it turns out, the names "Xena" and Gabrielle" are only "informal" and the planets will be officially named at a later date: "The International Astronomical Union, a group of scientists responsible for naming planets, is deciding on formal names for Xena and Gabrielle."

Once I found this out, I hustled on over to the International Astronomical Union to see what the naming procedure is. As it turns out, the IAU web site has many helpful public FAQs, including one dealing with the topic of Naming Stars after People and Buying Star Names. I felt reassured knowing the IAU had thought through the process, especially when I considered the "Buying Star Names" issue. I mean, I'd be dissapointed if they chose not to name the planet Xena, but at least I can feel certain there will be no planet Paris Hilton or planet Donald Trump in the near future.

Even if the planet hasn't been officially named yet, I don't think it's too early for fan fiction writers to tackle this tricky subject matter. I can't wait to see the first uber fan fic featuring Xena and Gabrielle as celestial objects. It reminds me of a story that the Cute Little Red-Headed Girlfriend, fan fiction connosieur that she is, once gave me to read. It's called Before the Dawn of Time by BladeMast. In this fic, the roles of Xena and Gabby are played by the universe and a light in the void. Similar, but not quite a planet and a moon.