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 ...
It's a "political posture" now?
And I'm "hoping for a meteor of doom"?
It's more like eventually this planet will be struck again. It's only a matter of time.
How much time, I have no real idea. But I'd guess some time prior to when the nearest star (that would be Sol, the sun as it were) greatly expands at the last dying stages of it's existence. Or so a theory concerning such matters goes...
Look at the pretty flowers.
That would take about five billion years. The Sun is a main-sequence star, and that's the calculation. We won't even exist as a species by then.
We might be something else, but that's a different discussion.
There's a joke about an astronomer giving a lecture, and he tells his audience the timeline that I just related.
A man in the audience stands up and shouts, "What! How many years?"
"The sun will destroy the inner planets in five billion years," the lecturer restates patiently.
"Oh, what a relief!" The man sits down again, "I thought you said five million years."
Could be sooner! (why I’m laughing right about now, I don’t know...)
Of course the reports about cover-ups have to be considered too. I realize that allows for anything. But they do exist and should be part of the equation.
I’m not a true believer in the Eric Hoffer sense of the term. I just think it’s true at this point.
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Yes. Yes it was a dangerous combo. Especially in the early morning hours. I was back seat driving with some local Dooms Dayers, who had food and bottled water stashed everywhere. *shudder*
And because of that, and their silly "patrols," I didn't sleep well, those last few hours. I got very tired creeping through the bush, looking for another stash of canned something. (It looked more like MREs when we found it.) So thanks for the "wishes." ;o])
400! W00t!
Good morning. After various disasters involving shoes covered with red mud in the house, the trip to Boy Scout camp is leaving.
“Why is she in such a bad mood?” asked a certain teenaged girl who is fortunate she still has all her limbs. Because it’s the same freeping blanketty blank blank, all day every day, that’s why.
I’ll use a little of my spare time today to rummage her room some more, I think, just out of casual animosity.
That looks like Jake! (As I recall him)
Squee!
Hahaha! That’s a goof one!
MRE's? Those are better than canned ravioli. I think.
The gods looked upon you favorably.
Ohdear. I just had a flashback to when Lablady was growing up. The teen years were torture. For both of us. I finally had a breakdown, and she went buh-bye. And you have my deepest sympathy.
(I recall MANY days [they actually seemed to run into each other, in their stark similarity,] that I felt an almost obscene desire to put the nearest hand-sized object into her foul mouth.)
She doesn’t come around much these days, but when she does, she comments on certain things, perhaps hinting that she should be the one to get that/those when I die. Not gonna happen.
Just had a shower, and I’m not sure it has improved how I feel, except perhaps to make me wonder if I should attempt to go to church or not. I will decide that during the next 90 minutes. After that, it will be too late to get ready and get there on time.
OK. I’ve got it figured out now. From now on, I’m just going to leave the typos in, because it would appear that you have taken over Darksheare’s job of messing with my keyboard via ESP. I’ll accept that.
But if you laugh, remember: The onus is on you! ;o]
No, Shannon is the calico. Jake looks more like the one eating the house!
Sometimes, the Sleep Gods favor me, sometimes, they don’t. Bit I think you’re right, and I need to get my three-day emergency kit fitted out. Now if I can just get to Vegas on a payday when the temperature isn’t blazing hot.
Ah. Ok. I seem to have been making more that my share of mistakes this week, for some reason. *sigh*
I need a brain transplant, maybe.
That’s okay. I’m more likely to get the cats’ names right than the children’s.
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