Adding another 3 billion miles out for this newly discoverd body of Sedna basically doubles the radius out to the edge of the solar system. -- xp38It's 3 billion KM, which is a good deal less than 3 billion miles.
The illustration in the article doesn't show much of a difference in the orbits, and has this object and Pluto cross in two places.New world found far beyond PlutoPreliminary observations suggest it may be up to 1,800km across, making it the largest body other than a true planet to be discovered orbiting our star... 2004 DW was found by California Institute of Technology astronomers Chad Trujillo and Mike Brown, and David Rabinowitz of Yale University - the same team that discovered Quaoar in 2002. Quaoar is 1,000 to 1,400km across. The new body is estimated to be somewhere between 840 and 1,800km... It has an orbit that is much larger than Pluto's, being, on average, 2.4bn km further out... 2004 DW could be a type of object called a Plutino. Such objects have an orbit related to Pluto's path around the Sun. Looking back in their archives, astronomers now realise they picked up the new object in images taken in 2002 but did not realise it at the time.
by Dr David Whitehouse
Friday, 20 February, 2004
10 billion kilometers is approximately 6 billion miles. Is that a typo in the article?