Posted on 12/14/2005 10:12:29 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Astronomers working in Canada, France and the United States said they had found a small deep-space object, nicknamed Buffy, that challenges mainstream theories about the evolution of the Solar System. The rock lies in the Kuiper Belt, the name for the flock of objects beyond Neptune's orbit that are believed to be leftover rubble from the Solar System's building phase and are the source for many comets... Measuring between 500 and 1,000 kilometers (300 to 600 miles) across and taking about 440 years to make just one circuit of the Sun, Buffy is remarkable not for its size -- around half a dozen identified Kuiper Belt objects are bigger -- but for its location and orbital tilt... Buffy has an almost perfect circular orbit and encircles the Sun at an extreme tilt, at 47 degrees to the orbital plane of the planets as they swing around the Sun... Buffy is the temporary name given by the team for the object, whose official designation by the Paris-based International Astronomical Union (IAU) is 2004 XR 190. Its orbit is in a relatively narrow range of between 52 and and 62 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun (an AU is a standard measurement, being that of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, of approximately 150 million kilometers, or 93 million miles). By comparison, another "extended scattered disk" member called Sedna swings out to as far as 900 AU before coming as close to the Sun as 76 AU.
(Excerpt) Read more at physorg.com ...
Huh?
The problem is not one of "randomness," it's one of orbital mechanics.
So two bodies can't have a gravitational interaction which throws one off of the plane of the ecliptic and just 'happens' to also have a circular orbit?
We've only got one body here to go on. If it was an entire accretion disk remnant (lots of co-planar bodies in circular orbits) off of the plane of the ecliptic, then we'd have a major theory malfunction.
It could happen -- but the sticking points are that for the orbit to be as circular as this, the perturbing body must:
1. have been about the same distance from the sun when the conjunction occurred (the new orbit has to include the point of close approach);
2. have a pretty circular orbit (else it would probably have been spotted by now);
3. has got to be fairly large.
So where is the perturbing body?
We've only got one body here to go on. If it was an entire accretion disk remnant (lots of co-planar bodies in circular orbits) off of the plane of the ecliptic, then we'd have a major theory malfunction.
True. It's an odd duck -- and there's no good answer to how it got the way it is. Now that they've found this guy outside of the ecliptic they might try to find others. If they do, then indeed there's a major theory malfunction. If not, then they've got to explain this guy's orbit.
System of three stars harbors newfound world
MSNBC.MSN.com | July 13, 2005 | By Michael Schirber
Posted on 07/15/2005 4:08:14 AM PDT by eagle11
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1443405/posts
Comet's course hints at mystery planet [ from 2001 ]
Govert Schilling | last updated February 5th, 2002 | Govert Schilling
Posted on 08/18/2006 5:36:59 PM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1686125/posts
Crisis In The Cosmos?
Science News Online | 10-13-2005 | Ron Cowen
Posted on 10/13/2005 8:15:33 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1502092/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
