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 ...
Welp. Looks like once again, I’m too late for the fun things that happen here. Or WAYYYY to early, depending on one’s perspective.
Bunch of interesting posts, for sure. I learn me a lot from youse guys.
She was always ill, but she managed to bring seven of us into the world and teach us the right ways to grow up.
Well - away from the planet. Right! Otherwise it's either growing sideways or growing down.
Are you a space person?
Did you get missile toe?
Good morning. It’s early here, too. I have to take Elen to school in about half an hour.
“No, Inspector, we didn’t see any unusual vehicles all day.”
But the issue there isn't street width, it's parking spaces. You can squish one of these in next to a fire hydrant where a regular car would get a ticket.
Just don't ask me to buy one. They're the wrong size for either a car or a coffin - and I can easily imagine most drivers need the latter with so little crash protection.
That's how they say "y'all" in the lesser parts of the U.S.
I get extremely nervous in small cars, after all these years of driving a 747. Death is so close!
There are a few of those around here, too, but very few on the freeways.
*shudder* Just the picture gives me claustrophobia. If the Tracker didn’t have such big windows, I wouldn’t want to spend much time in it, for sure.
It IS a coffin..
“After all Sgt, Missing persons cause less paperwork than a good old fashioned ‘Stiff’.”
“Did you call UPS, Sgt?”
“Don’t look now, Insp, recovery has arrived....nice flowers over here in this border.”
Have you see the price of those Smart cars?
£13,000-£15,000 depending on who knows what.
They do actually drive quite well....it was curiosity. Nothing more. :)
And has your curiosity been sated?
I don’t see how such a critter would be practical if you ever had to do anything more than drive. You certainly couldn’t go shopping unless all you wanted to do was purchase one item at a time. And make multiple trips.. ;-)
You should get a medal for driving one of those in rush hour traffic, put it that way.
:)
Do you need all of those Threes?
Well...
Four of a kind beats a full house.. ;-)
Afternoon, all. Tom ate some of the ingredients for tonight’s supper, but we’ll get by ... and he can have toast.
Poor little feller planet
A midget
Alone out there with the Oort Cloud raining every day
Prolly some cold nights too
We’ve been talking about murder and fatal auto crashes all day long, but your post is *really* sad!
LOL! Tom could eat me out of house and home in an hour, I think!
I think, after I go to Walgreen’s in the AM, I will head back to Wally’s for some white Pink Drink. I could have used it today, but I just got my parking space back and didn’t want to lose it again. Oscar was hovering. I think he’s trying to figure out who drives the Tracker, and he is totally flummoxed. ;o] And SOOO out of his league!
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