Xiangliu facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Xiangliu is the only moon orbiting the dwarf planet 225088 Gonggong. It was found by a team of astronomers led by Csaba Kiss. They discovered it by looking closely at old pictures of Gonggong taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Scientists thought that Gonggong's very slow spin might be caused by a moon pulling on it. This idea helped them look for a moon.

Discovery of Xiangliu

Xiangliu was first seen in Hubble images taken on September 18, 2010. These pictures were captured using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. The discovery was officially announced by Gábor Marton, Csaba Kiss, and Thomas Müller. They shared the news at a big meeting for planetary scientists on October 17, 2016.

Naming Xiangliu

The moon is named after Xiangliu, a creature from ancient Chinese stories. Xiangliu is a monster with nine heads and is very poisonous. In these myths, Xiangliu was a powerful helper to the water god Gonggong. This naming connects the moon to its dwarf planet, Gonggong, which is also named after a Chinese water god.

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