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 ...
Only because Nevada got so ripped up about Statehood Day being on Halloween... Seems they couldn’t tolerate the good-natured ribbing and retreated to their safe space — the last Friday in October. Buncha wusses.
Whenever anyone tells me what Bill Gates said recently I laugh.
I could tell stories about Microsoft defending being stuck at 16 bits YEARS after Linux was 32 bits.
What holiday is it?
It’s Nevada Statehood Day.
Welp, I’m sure the OS in this thing won’t be MS for too much longer. I’m just waiting for a day when my mental and manual dexterity coincide. Perhaps tomorrow, or at the latest, Saturday.
Well, happy Nevada a Day early! Is there a special Nevada Day meal?
Dunno. Yoghurt and snails maybe?
Sounds like a party!
Me, too, except that my parents didn't beat me and my grandmothers, to my knowledge, didn't shoot people.
Same.
My parents weren’t in prison either, but the rest of it is spot-on.
No prison terms here, either.
I heard a diesel vehicle back in and begin to idle, and I thought it was a paratransit bus, but never heard the lift deploy. That was about 15 minutes ago.
I just walked outside to see what it was: A solid black bus with black windows with a flag and an eagle on the driver’s side (probably on the other one as well) so I walked to the back of it and saw “Triple J Tours.”
Who in here has a CDL besides Greg who is currently in dialysis? Curiouser and curiouser.
And no there is no special Nevada Day meal, at least not here. I could go to a neighborhood casino and eat, but the cigarette smoke is not worth it. I don’t have the money to go anywhere else. (They have $1.99 breakfasts.)
Prayers up.
Maybe the tour bus is lost.
Not sitting and idling for so long. Waiting for someone, maybe. They all have GPS these days, anyway.
Makes me want to be a gawker.
I wouldn’t want to be associated with Halloween for any reason. It’s Liberal Training Day and that would just be insulting.
Zeke just knocked on my door. I sent him a text about it, so he asked the driver: Celebration of Aging. See? I knew it didn’t have anything to do with me.
It’s supposed to pick up the folks at 0800, but it’s been out here since before 0700. The destination is a casino in North Las Vegas, and I just don’t do casinos.
I bet the bus is pretty spiffy inside!
“Celebration of Aging.” Maybe it’s related to Nevada Statehood Day.
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