For the first time, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has seen distinctly the “tenth planet,” currently nicknamed “Xena,” and found that it’s only slightly larger than Pluto. Though previous ground-based observations suggested that Xena’s diameter was about 30 percent greater than Pluto, Hubble observations taken Dec. 9 and 10, 2005, showed Xena’s diameter as 1,490 miles (with an uncertainty of 60 miles). Pluto’s diameter, as measured by Hubble, is 1,422 miles.

“Hubble is the only telescope capable of getting a clean visible-light measurement of the actual diameter of Xena,” said Mike Brown, planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. Brown’s research team discovered Xena, officially cataloged as 2003 UB313, and its results have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

Only a handful of images were required to determine Xena’s diameter. Located 10 billion miles from Earth with a diameter a little more than half the width of the United States, the object is 1.5 pixels across in Hubble’s view. That’s enough to make a precise size measurement. Because Xena is smaller than previously thought, but comparatively bright, it must be one of the most reflective objects in the solar system. The only object more reflective is Enceladus, a geologically active moon of Saturn whose surface is continuously recoated with highly reflective ice by active geysers. Xena’s bright reflectivity is possibly due to fresh methane frost on its surface. The object may have had an atmosphere when it was closer to the sun, but as it moved to its current location farther away this atmosphere would have “frozen out,” settling on the surface as frost. Another possibility is that Xena leaks methane gas continuously from its warmer interior. When this methane reaches the cold surface, it immediately freezes solid, covering craters and other features to make it uniformly bright to Hubble’s telescopic eye. Xena takes about 560 years to orbit the sun, and it is now very close to aphelion (the point on its orbit that is farthest from the sun). Brown next plans to use Hubble and other telescopes to study other recently discovered Kuiper Belt objects that are almost as large as Pluto and Xena. The Kuiper Belt is a vast ring of primordial icy comets and larger bodies encircling Neptune’s orbit.

Finding that the largest known Kuiper Belt object is a virtual twin to Pluto may only further complicate the debate about whether to categorize the large icy worlds that populate the belt as planets. If Pluto were considered to be the minimum size for a planet, then Xena would fulfill this criterion, too. In time, the International Astronomical Union will designate the official name.

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/hst_xena_20060410.html

By Carol Hubbell Boggs

In September 2005, I retrieved a message from the answering machine that was to lead me to a Hubbell connection far away in Indiana. The caller, Linda Browner, lived in nearby Carrboro, NC, but didn’t know me, but when she decided to try once more to find the origin of a friendship quilt she had purchased in the 1970s, she mentioned some of the names on the quilt to a friend of hers. He happened to be a member of the Durham-Orange Genealogical Society, and directed her to me to learn about Carrie Hubbell, whose name was prominent on the quilt. Her phone call was particularly intriguing, because of my interest in the Hubbell Wives, so I went to the computer to locate Carrie through census records in Lewis Township, Clay County, Indiana. It did not take long to find nearly all the women whose names were on the quilt, and I contacted Hilbert Hubble to ask which of our Hubbell men was likely to be Carrie’s husband. He said he thought he was A&R 9605, Roy L. Hubbell, an Indiana coal miner.

Linda was astonished at my success, and explained she had purchased the quilt in an antique shop in Kentucky while on a camping trip there, and was taken by the charm of it and the fact that it contained a piece of history. In the center one of the blocks contained the words, “Community Flower Club September 21 1933”. The antique store owner told her she thought it was probably a local quilt, or might have been from nearby Ohio, so for years Linda had tried off and on to locate possible quilters in Ohio without success. In 2005 she decided it was time to finally place the quilt in the hands of the descendants of the stitchers. She had asked various people about several of the names on the quilt, and one had even used the Internet to try to locate the stitchers, but Linda had not mentioned the name Hubbell and so had no luck.

Now that she had a location she called the Clay County (Indiana) Genealogical Society and explained her quest to the volunteer working there that day who was Lila Stienstra, the grand-daughter of two of the stitchers, and great-grand-daughter of a third. She immediately said she knew of the quilt and the women whose names it bore. She said, “Gramma let me go to some of their meetings. They would have a short meeting, then quilt for a couple hours, then have refreshments. They met at each others homes.” She was very touched and happy to hear of the quilt’s survival.

Lila said she had known of a contemporary Iva Hubbell [possibly wife of 12066 Ray Hubbell, ed.], but most of the families mentioned were no longer in the region. Soon she will have the familiar quilt in her hands, all because Carrie Hubbell signed her name, never suspecting how important it would become in the search for the home of a special Depression quilt.

Please visit the Clay County Genealogical Society online at http://www.ccgsilib.org/

By Barbara Kruse

Other than the heat in Thailand, it was a wonderful trip, led by Lutheran minister John Krahn, that 29 of us took to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. We didn’t come across any Hubbell cousins, but one of our colleagues was John Eichelberger of Ohio who had been in the 2nd battallion, 1st Marines, when he spent 19 months in Vietnam. In Hanoi, once we got in the Embassy (it took time), we met with and were impressed by two of the Marines stationed there. They were indeed a credit to the Corps and to our country.

There was much to see in Hanoi– Ho Chi Mausoleum, the Pillar Pagoda, Temple of Literature, historic old quarter, the pottery village of Bat Trang, the Water Puppet show, and so much more. The traffic with all of the motor bikes weaving in and out and cutting in front of each other was something else. None of the bikes, cars or busses gives an inch at the rotaries– just keep edging in, and lots of horn blowing. Of course, rice paddies are everywhere.

We continued to Halong Bay, Hue and Hoi An, and visited the Cham museum, China Beach and Marble Mountain before going to Saigon. It was very emotional seeing the remnants of the Vietnam War and the Cu Chi tunnels. At Mekong Delta, we took a boat trip along narrow canals, passing rice fields and lush orchards.

In Siem Reap, Cambodia, we saw the incredible temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom as well as the “Jewel of the Jungle”– ruins of an 800 year old temple with tremendous 300 year old spund trees growing among the ruins. A boat trip took us to see the fascinating floating village before leaving for Bangkok. There we saw fantastic temples with so much gold, gems and marble– taking off our shoes before entering each one. Before leaving Bangkok, we found time to visit the Embassy and meet two more young Marines and purchase Marine polo shirts.

Then we had to fly to Seoul, South Korea before flying home and two things we learned: we didn’t have to change our watches for there was a 12-hour time difference, and you want to get to the airports early, before the Koreans get there. When a Korean takes a trip, it’s not unusual for as many as 50 friends and relatives to go along to see that person off– and lots of Koreans are flying, and they are all crying. They rub tiger balm on their cheeks, under the eyes, to make it easier to cry. Oh yes, the Korean Airlines serve excellent food, putting the American airlines to shame.

It was a wonderful trip but it’s so good to be back home.

Barbara Currier Kruse is a Contributing Member of THFHS.

By Carol Hubbell Boggs

The Hubbell Family Historical Society is proud to announce that the book Hubbell By Choice: The Ancestry of Some Early Connecticut Women, (2008) co-authored by Mary Ann Hubbell and Marjorie Hubbell Gibson has won the prestigious Connecticut Society of Genealogists’ Literary Award “Grand Prize for Genealogy” for 2009. The prize will be awarded on May 16, 2009 at the CSG annual meeting at the Hawthorne Inn in Berlin, Connecticut.Sadly, one of the principal authors, Marjorie Hubbell Gibson, passed away the morning word arrived that the book had been chosen, and never knew that the book had been selected for the award. Her daughters, Anne Gibson and Carol Gibson were informed only hours after her death, and have agreed to attend the meeting to accept the award on hers and the Society’s behalf, as she would have wished.

Begun in 2000, the project involved five Hubbell women descendants or spouses who felt strongly that the “distaff side” of the early Colonial families was given short shrift and their families were sometimes obscured by history and difficult for current day researchers to track. The five also included Bertie Herman in Texas, Barbara Kruse in Long Island, NY, and Carol Hubbell Boggs in North Carolina. Mary Ann and Marjorie lived in Utah and Cape Cod. They conferred at length via email, telephone, and personal visits for years, collecting data, photos, corrections, and permissions for publication of copyrighted material, editing, and discussing various methods of publishing.

During those years the usual life events occurred in each household, but some unusual ones happened as well. Bertie was twice driven from her home for a period of weeks for Hurricanes Rita and Gustav and she and her husband are still living in a FEMA trailer. When the team missed the original 2001 publication target date and 2003 came around Carol stepped aside to become president of the Society. Each year brought more information and more changes.

Because the book evolved over a number of years, the team was able to take advantage of the changes in the publishing industry and made the decision to use Print On Demand (POD) technology to hold down costs and inventory for the Society. Experienced authors might feel that ten years is not unusually long for such research, but for the five team members, it seemed forever, and was a valuable and enjoyable experience for all concerned. Originally there was talk of researching and writing one more generation, but that can be left to others now that the mold has been established. Visit the THFHS Store for directions to obtain your copy from Lulu.com.