Posted on 07/29/2005 6:21:26 PM PDT by gopwinsin04
A planet larger than Pluto has been discovered in the outlying regions of the solar system. The planet was discovered using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego.
The discovery was announced today by Dr. Mike Brown of the Califorina Institute of Technology. Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the earth, the planet is now the farthest known object in the solar system.
It will be visible by telescope over the next six months and currently is almost directly overhead in the early morning eastern sky in the constellation Cetus.
Dr. Mike Brown (Cal Tech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory, Hawaii), and David Rabinowitz (Yale University), first photographed the planet with the 48 inch Samuel Oschin Telescope.
However, the object was so far away that the motion was not detected until earlier this year. The scientists have been studying the planet for the last seven months to better estimate its size and motions.
'It's befinitely bigger than Pluto,' said Brown a professor of planetary astronomy.
'Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would still be bigger than Pluto,' said Brown. 'I'd say its probably about one and a half times the size of Pluto, but we're not sure yet about the final size.'
'We are 100 percent that this is the first object bigger than Pluto ever found in the outer solar system.'
(Excerpt) Read more at nasa.gov ...
How about "Frozone"?
Cold, dark, and out of touch, sounds like Ohio to me.
I'd like to name it Myanus.
LOL
Going with the Roman god theme, we can name it Angerona, a goddess of coldness.
Rumor has it that the name proposed officially is "Lila".
The Planet SINATRA!
Or Hoboken.
**why don't we name this one something COLD....Pluto just doesn't sound cold to me....**
Zamboni
Actually, Pluto was named after the Roman god of the underworld precisely because it is cold and dark. The Roman notion of Hell was a cold, clammy place (like a crypt).
Angerona? How about "My Sharona".
See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4726733.stm
Excerpted
Frantic checking
Two groups of scientists will be claiming the latest discovery.
It was picked up by astronomers of the Institute of Astrophysics in Andalusia as part of a survey of the outer solar system for new objects that they have been carrying out since 2002.
"We found a bright, slow moving object while checking some older images of our survey for Trans-Neptunian Objects," Jose-Luis Ortiz, one of the objects co-discoverers, told the BBC News website.
It was subsequently designated 2003 EL61.
However, American astronomers also appear to have detected it.
The same team that found Sedna have designated it K40506A after it was picked up by the Gemini telescope and one of the twin Keck telescopes in Hawaii.
They are due to present their findings at a conference in Cambridge in September.
Because the object is relatively bright, astronomers are frantically checking other observations that may have picked it up, particularly robotic sky surveys.
The announcement, made today by Mike Brown of Caltech, came just hours after another newfound object, one slightly smaller than Pluto, was revealed in a very confusing day for astronomers and the media.
The new object, temporarily named 2003 UB313, is about three times as far from the Sun as is Pluto.
"It's definitely bigger than Pluto," said Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy. The object is round and could be up to twice as large as Pluto, Brown told reporters in a hastily called NASA-run teleconference Friday evening.
His best estimate is that it is 2,100 miles wide, about 1-1/2 times the diameter of Pluto.
One of many?
The object is inclined by a whopping 45 degrees to the main plane of the solar system, where most of the other planets orbit. That's why it eluded discovery: nobody was looking there until now, Brown said.
BREAKING NEWS: Object Bigger than Pluto Discovered, Called 10th Planet
Tenth Rock from the sun?
Ok, it appears there were only two KPO discoveries announced, one was 2003 EL61 and the other 2003UB313, UB313 may be named LILA if the IAU accepts the astronomer's recommendation.
Yes, and there has been some confusion. Some media reports claimed that the new planet was smaller than Pluto and had a moon.
Pabst is nasty beer.... :-)
Yes, and that is why it should be sent to the furthest reaches of the solar system.
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