Confirm – to authoritively acknowledge a query. (mine)
Confirm 1. to give approval to : RATIFY (Webster)
Confirm 2. to give new assurance of the validity of : remove doubt about by authoritative act or indisputable fact (Webster)
“Scientists confirmed the 10th planet” – what the fuck is wrong with these media people? Only IAU can “confirm” a planet, sort of like only Catholic officials can “confirm” a saint. As of this time, IAU has made no meeting regarding the celestial object of designation 2003 UB313’s status as a planet. AFAIK, emergency meetings aren’t called for crack-pot Astronomy instructors to get planethood for a minor planet/piece of space debris. Also, would love to slap the people who are using the name Xena without the notations of 1. it isn’t a planet yet, and 2. IAU hasn’t accepted the name.
So there, you media pigs take your flowery, over-glorified stories of major planet roster updates and shove them up your asses where your heads already reside.