"Frank, trust me, one day soon you'll end in the Kuiper Belt. Right, Hal? Hal?"
Posted on 12/25/2013 3:13:15 PM PST by SunkenCiv
There’s something odd floating around in the outer solar system. Actually, there’s lots of odd things floating around in the outer solar system, but 2002 UX25 is one of the most baffling.
The mid-sized Kuiper belt object (KBO) measures 650 kilometers (400 miles) across, and yet it has a density less than water (less than 1 gram per cubic centimeter). Yes, if you put it in a huge bathtub, 2002 UX25 would float.
...planetary scientist Mike Brown, of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, has taken a measure of 2002 UX25′s density and discovered that it is “the largest solid known object in the solar system with a measured density below that of pure water ice.” Measuring the density of these distant objects are very difficult and require a small moonlet in orbit around the KBO so its orbital characteristics can be accurately measured and KBO density probed. The KBOs satellite was discovered by Hubble in 2005 and follow-up observations by the Keck Observatory in Hawaii refined its orbit.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
"Frank, trust me, one day soon you'll end in the Kuiper Belt. Right, Hal? Hal?"
Styrofoam .9 gram per cubic centimeter...........Just saying :)
It is the packing materials for all the instruments scientists use to find out what the missing mass f the universe is composed of...
Obama’s birth certificate? Missing 5 million Obamacare signees? Rose Law Firm records? Democratic storehouse of votes? So many options . . .
OMG! You’re right. That likeness is uncanny!
Oh.. Oh... Oh...!!
I remember that story!
When will the king say he's sorry?
DOODY!!!
From the picture it is the storage mass of all viking Kitty hair-balls combined — I had wondered where Jim was making the storage space and now we know — right mass, right specific gravity and appearance is dead on.
lol
Isn't ice less dense than water?
Water ice formed at certain temperatures floats because of its lower density (about 6/7ths that of liquid water).
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