A couple of days ago we got an email from an astronomer who was excited about Kiva. I forwarded it on to Sundeep (our volunteer coordinator) who joked that he didn’t know what to say to a rocket scientist except to suggest that he name a planet after Kiva. I jokingly replied:

“Tell him we don’t need a planet – we’d be content with a sub-planetary object in the Kuiper Belt or some other trans-Neptunian object. I’d also be happy with anything from the Oort Cloud :)”

Yes I am a massive nerd. However, little did I know that Sundeep would include my geeky quote in his note back to the guy. Check out the reply we just got from our astronomer friend:

“… Oh.. about the planet / or sub-planet Kuiper belt object – I am not a planetary astronomer – I research galaxies and study the formation and evolution from the first galaxies to te ones we see today – but I am going to try and think of creative way of getting Kiva into my next paper and presentation.. I will keep you updated… In the meanwhile, I will certainly mention it to Mike Brown – the discoverer of Sedna, Xena and other KBOs which started the whole Pluto controversy – he is sure to find more – may be he can think of a good thing to name for Kiva :)”

My inner 8-year-old is having a total spaz.