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 ...
Yeah, some total stranger. Can’t believe it.
It’s cooling off up here. I’ll be packing jackets and sweatshirts for Pennsylvania.
*sigh*
Yeah, maybe. But if I had any sense I’d be snowbirding between Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
I thought you lived in Maryland. Keeping three residences could get complicated!
It’s not bad, but the advantages of snow-birding between Pennsylvania and Maryland are not that obvious or economically advantageous.
Summer in PA, with an almost constant cooling breeze, and Winter in North Carolina, somewhere not too close to a houseful of noisy kids; yeah, I could sell me that.
If you ever decide to pursue the concept, the NC Forum regulars can help you find a place that suits you.
Union County is nice ... and it only takes a half mile or so before you’re out of range of the shrieking here.
There are very affordable new construction 3 br 2 ba homes about ten miles inland from the southern coastal NC beaches, $130K or so, popular with retirees. Subtropical climate with palmetto trees and seldom any snow, but it can get cold at times. Doesn’t get very cold or stay cold long, though, otherwise the palmettos couldn’t survive. Communities off the top of my head, Leland, Supply, Boiling Springs. There are others, just can’t think of the names right now. Nearest city would be Wilmington, NC or Myrtle Beach, SC, depending upon location.
Inland from Wilmington is flat and scrubby, but the climate is pretty good in winter.
Depends on where you are. Some areas are covered in Live Oak with spanish moss.
Live oak is pretty scrubby compared to Up North.
Oops, not Boiling Springs, that’s up in the mountains. I meant Bolivia.
Bolivia is in South America.
It’s also a town in coastal NC.
Weird, but then, there’s a Mexico, Missouri.
Heck, there’s a “Texas”, Maryland. They must have used a shrinking spell.
Bolivia’s not far from Warsaw, in NC at least.
1966. I remember reading it when it first came out.
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