The official name of the object, expected to be a dwarf planet, is 2012 VP113. Would-be dwarf planet called Biden

Hillary Clinton might have had her face superimposed on a planet for a magazine cover, but it’s Vice President Joe Biden whose name is being used to identify a possible dwarf planet.

The official name of the recently discovered object, expected to be a dwarf planet, is 2012 VP 113 , but it is called VP or Biden for short, by the team who discovered it, the science journal Nature reported Wednesday.


Dr. Scott Sheppard, who co-discovered the celestial body, explained that the official name 2012 VP 113 is a result of the discovery classification system and not an affinity for the second in command.

“We were a little hesitant to tell people what we actually call it because it is politics and we’re not interested in the politics part,” Sheppard said, noting its official name was long.

( PHOTOS: Joe Biden’s first term: A BFD)

“We didn’t want to keep calling it that, so we saw the VP in there and so we just started calling it Biden for short,” he said.

Sheppard explained that objects are initially designated by the year in which they were discovered — in this case, 2012 — and then based on the month. For example, an object discovered in the first half of January is designated with ‘A,’ or if the second half, with a ‘B.’

Sheppard said the “V” in his discovery denotes that it was found during the first half of November. The second letter and number indicate the order in which the object was found. Sheppard said this means hundreds of of objects — such as asteroids and smaller bodies — were found before “Biden,” just in November 2012 alone.

As for the fact it was discovered in November 2012, Sheppard said the election had no influence in the object’s nickname either.

“I didn’t think about that,” he said.

Sheppard and his co-discoverer Chad Trujillo, reported their finding to Nature on Wednesday and said the object orbits the sun far beyond Pluto.

Although the nickname “Biden” is only temporary.

Once its orbit is “pinned down,” a name will be submitted by the astronomers for consideration to the International Astronomical Union, which oversees the name of celestial bodies, the outlet reported.

Sheppard said because the object is so distant that “it is a very cold environment so we are going to suggest a name from some kind of arctic civilization mythology like the Inuits or Eskimos.”

“We don’t have a particular name in mind, but it will likely have to do with mythology and being cold,” he added.