Big Tno Discovery |
Big Tno Discovery |
Jul 29 2005, 08:03 AM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
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Jul 29 2005, 08:17 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 350 Joined: 20-June 04 From: Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. Member No.: 86 |
Planet X, or perhaps Rama I.
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Jul 29 2005, 09:16 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Admin Posts: 468 Joined: 11-February 04 From: USA Member No.: 21 |
Interestingly enough, it had already been found by another group and was given the designation K40506A. It has an elongated shape, 3.9 hour rotational period and a satellite. Total mass of it and its satellite weighs in around 30% of Pluto.
http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v37n3/dps2005/320.htm http://www.aas.org/publications/baas/v37n3/dps2005/786.htm |
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Jul 29 2005, 09:55 AM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
Hmmm... ...a candidate for a post-Pluto encounter, perhaps? Depends where it is, of course...
-------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Jul 29 2005, 11:52 AM
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 524 Joined: 24-November 04 From: Heraklion, GR. Member No.: 112 |
BBC article : Distant object found orbiting Sun
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Jul 29 2005, 09:55 PM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3241 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
While K40506A/2003 EL61 now appears to be smaller than Pluto based on Spitzer data, another newly announced TNO, 2003 UB313 is defintely larger than Pluto, perhaps as large as Mars.
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/index.html http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K05/K05O41.html -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Guest_Sunspot_* |
Jul 29 2005, 10:15 PM
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#7
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Guests |
WOW............when will there be an official announcement?
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Jul 29 2005, 11:29 PM
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#8
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Member Group: Members Posts: 249 Joined: 11-June 05 From: Finland (62°14′N 25°44′E) Member No.: 408 |
That's not all!
There are third large KBO discovery announcement today (MPEC 2005-O42). The object, 2005 FY9, may also be larger than 2003 EL61! -------------------- The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
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Jul 30 2005, 12:58 AM
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#9
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3241 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
QUOTE (Sunspot @ Jul 29 2005, 03:15 PM) a few minutes ago: NASA-Funded Scientists Discover Tenth Planet http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solars...net-072905.html -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Jul 30 2005, 01:32 AM
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#10
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Member Group: Members Posts: 510 Joined: 17-March 05 From: Southeast Michigan Member No.: 209 |
The article quotes Brown as saying it will be "visible with a telescope", but you'd better have a big one. S&T gives it a magnitude of 18.9 - Pluto is 13.8, and I have trouble seeing it in my 12.5" dob.
Very cool news. I wonder if this will stir the pot of the whole "is Pluto really a planet" debate... -------------------- --O'Dave
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Jul 30 2005, 03:20 AM
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#11
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
Is the object at it's closest approach to the sun?
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Jul 30 2005, 03:22 AM
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#12
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1276 Joined: 25-November 04 Member No.: 114 |
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Jul 30 2005, 11:28 AM
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#13
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Rover Driver Group: Members Posts: 1015 Joined: 4-March 04 Member No.: 47 |
Methane on the surface as well...another frozen-out atmosphere?
Looks like a job for Spitzer, Hubble, etc very cool |
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Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Jul 30 2005, 11:42 AM
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#14
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Guests |
According to the NY Times, it's nowhere near perihelion. Its 560-year orbit is extremely eccentric -- it's currently 97 AU from the Sun, but has a perihelion of only 35.5 AU -- and tilted an astonishing 44 degrees to the ecliptic, which makes it more understandable that it wasn't discovered before. As for its size: the
Spitzer Telescope cannot yet detect its thermal IR, meaning that it must be less than twice Pluto's diameter -- but it would be bigger than Pluto even if its albedo was 100%. It apparently has methane frost like Pluto; if its albedo equals Pluto's 0.60, it must be about 3000 km in diameter as compared to Pluto's 2270 km. Meanwhile, we also have a THIRD big KBO announced today: 2005 FY9, which has been detected by the Spitzer Telescope and is modestly smaller than Pluto -- along with 2003 EL61, this morning's false alarm, which turns out to be smaller still. (The latter has a moon, which has allowed its mass to be calculated at 30% of Pluto's.) Neither of these is small potatoes either, though, except by comparison with 2003 UB313 -- they seem to be about 70-80% of Pluto's diameter. So now we can switch to wrangling drearily over whether the Solar System has 10 planets or only 8 (or 9, if you decide to rate 2003 UB313 as a planet but not Pluto.) Alan Stern continues to insist that if something's large enough to be rendered spherical by its gravity, it's a planet -- but that includes Ceres and probably Pallas and Vesta, and in any case it containes ambiguities of its own (even if you don't count Bizarro World from DC Comics, which you may recall was cubical). Personally, I still favor setting a maximum diameter of 2000 km as the arbitrary planet/nonplanet dividing line, which will allow Pluto to retain its longtime seat in the Planet Club without allowing too many newcomers to crash the party. |
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Guest_Myran_* |
Jul 30 2005, 12:37 PM
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#15
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Bruce. Just wait until they have found a thousand objects with a diameter between that of Pluto and Mars's (and perhaps a few Earth sized ones also) , I dont think the schoolchildren of the future will have to memorize the names of a solar system of more of a thousand planets!
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