Discovery in Outer Solar System to be Announced Today

blacbird said:

There were actually two important solar-system astronomical announcements today. One being the asteroid with rings, the other being the discovery of a large Oort Cloud planetesimal body, as yet unnamed, somewhat smaller than the "dwarf planets" Eris and Sedna, but interesting because it suggests that many more such bodies, including possibly larger ones, may lurk out there on the edge of our star's gravitational influence.

Such bodies are beastly hard to detect, having very little reflectivity of the feeble sunlight that reaches them.

caw

Click to expand...

The solar system has a new most-distant family member.

Scientists using ground based observatories have discovered an object that is believed to have the most distant orbit found beyond the known edge of our solar system. Named 2012 VP113, the observations of the object -- possibly a dwarf planet -- were obtained and analyzed with a grant from NASA. A dwarf planet is an object in orbit around the sun that is large enough to have its own gravity pull itself into a spherical, or nearly round, shape.

The detailed findings are published in the March 27 edition of Nature.

Click to expand...

Both Sedna and 2012 VP113 were found near their closest approach to the sun, but they both have orbits that go out to hundreds of AU, at which point they would be too faint to discover. The similarity in the orbits found for Sedna, 2012 VP113 and a few other objects near the edge of the Kuiper Belt suggests the new object’s orbit might be influenced by the potential presence of a yet unseen planet perhaps up to 10 times the size of Earth. Further studies of this deep space arena will continue.

Click to expand...

blacbird said:

There were actually two important solar-system astronomical announcements today. One being the asteroid with rings, the other being the discovery of a large Oort Cloud planetesimal body, as yet unnamed, somewhat smaller than the "dwarf planets" Eris and Sedna, but interesting because it suggests that many more such bodies, including possibly larger ones, may lurk out there on the edge of our star's gravitational influence.

Such bodies are beastly hard to detect, having very little reflectivity of the feeble sunlight that reaches them.

caw

Click to expand...

robjvargas said:

Probably this: a dwarf planet.

Could be this: an asteroid with rings.

But those stories look like they'd both violate the embargo.

Click to expand...

zarada said:

shhht! ya know gas planets caint has volcanic craters...

Click to expand...

cornflake said:

This is the second like object discovered in that area with an orbit suggesting they're attached to a large body. There's theoretically a big planet there.

Click to expand...

cornflake said:

I dunno, can we just get out butts to Europa and find the cool beasties please?

Click to expand...

Manuel Royal said:

Incidentally, apparently young-Earth creationists don't believe in the Oort cloud. Instead, they believe the frequent appearance of comets falling into the inner Solar System proves that the whole shebang is only 6,000 years old.

Click to expand...

Manuel Royal said:

Not a big planet. Well, that is, not a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn. But there could be a nice rocky planet, maybe even Earth-size. Wouldn't that be neato? Actually suggests several sf possibilities right away.

Incidentally, apparently young-Earth creationists don't believe in the Oort cloud. Instead, they believe the frequent appearance of comets falling into the inner Solar System proves that the whole shebang is only 6,000 years old.

Hells, yeah. Sign me up.

Click to expand...

Teinz said:

It's probably Melancholia. Time to put on Wagner and mess up a wedding.

Click to expand...