Posted on 07/12/2016 8:03:24 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Pluto isn't quite as lonely as scientists had thought.
Astronomers have discovered another dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune. But this newfound world, dubbed 2015 RR245, is much more distant than Pluto, orbiting the sun once every 700 Earth years, scientists said. (Pluto completes one lap around the sun every 248 Earth years.)
"The icy worlds beyond Neptune trace how the giant planets formed and then moved out from the sun," discovery team member Michele Bannister, of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said in a statement. "They let us piece together the history of our solar system."
...
The exact size of 2015 RR245 is not yet known, but the researchers think it's about 435 miles (700 kilometers) wide. Pluto is the largest resident of the Kuiper Belt, with a diameter of 1,474 miles (2,371 km).
The research team first spotted 2015 RR245 in February of this year, while poring over images that the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii took in September 2015 as part of the ongoing Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS).
"There it was on the screen — this dot of light moving so slowly that it had to be at least twice as far as Neptune from the sun," Bannister said.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
That was a quick pounce! I’d have nabbed it, but I had nothing to say.
Wow. That IS cool. That could be addicting...
I loved MAD magazine when I was a kid. I haven’t seen it in years but I do think it’s still in print.
Some of the best song parodies were written by the staff there, and of course, that’s how I sing those songs in my head today.
I prefer to think you were just waiting for me to get up and snag it. ;o]
That’s great news about Elen. Back when I was first looking for work, I was best suited to be a forest ranger, but the job wasn’t open to women. I’m tickled about Elen’s chances to go into that field. Or one similar.
Elen is very outdoorsy ... more like Tom than like Bill. I wish she could have met the young man who was leading the Nature program at Cub Scout day camp: they’d have been a perfect match! Maybe if she goes to Appalachian State for her degree program they will find one another.
One more day of Frank and Kathleen’s swimming lessons. Frank is coming right along. Kathleen can have more lessons at Monroe later in the year. It costs less there but is not as convenient as Lake Park.
I was always outdoors as a kid, and if I saw something “new” I would remember what it looked like, then go home and look it up. I can remember doing that as young as eight years old.
After I was a young adult, the most outdoorsy I got was to marry into the military. ;o]
Tomorrow I have to be at the airport at 4:30 AM. Don’t get back until after midnight.
The people I’m meeting with are doomed.
Doomed, I say, DOOMED.
Well done.
When I was younger and much stronger I could water ski without getting anything wet but my feet and ankles.
Those days are long gone.
I thought having nothing to say was a requirement for posting on the UT.
I certainly have nothing to say.
I never could water-ski.
Well, there’s “nothing,” and then there’s Nothing.
And speaking of nothing to say:
Somehow I’ve ended up at Stokesay castle for a cup of tea.
No idea how, just happened.
That’s not the kind of thing that happens to me. I end up at Walmart with eight kids having a complete lapse of mental functioning.
Beautiful! I’d like to have tea there. Some day.
I’m back from the doctor’s office. My appointment was for 0800 and I was out the door and on my way home by 0815.
B/P 140/92
She says I’m perfect! Hahahaha! I haven’t been “perfect” since I was in my mid-20’s.
The swallows are picking the insects out of the air overhead.
The place has an other worldly peace to it.
How about “doing quite well in a number of ways.”
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