2018 VG18 “Farout”, The most distant Solar System object ever observed |
2018 VG18 “Farout”, The most distant Solar System object ever observed |
Dec 17 2018, 10:01 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 241 Joined: 16-May 06 From: Geneva, Switzerland Member No.: 773 |
"A team of astronomers has discovered the most-distant body ever observed in our Solar System. It is the first known Solar System object that has been detected at a distance that is more than 100 times farther than Earth is from the Sun."
https://carnegiescience.edu/node/2428 “Farout” is at about 120 astronomical units, its brightness suggests that it is about 500 km in diameter (likely making it spherical) and it has a pinkish hue, a color generally associated with ice-rich objects. Very nice discovery. Regards Marc. |
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Dec 17 2018, 10:10 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1669 Joined: 5-March 05 From: Boulder, CO Member No.: 184 |
Interesting - a similar albedo to Pluto (with the estimated 500km diameter) would place this at about 23.1 magnitude in brightness.
-------------------- Steve [ my home page and planetary maps page ]
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Dec 17 2018, 10:15 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 544 Joined: 17-November 05 From: Oklahoma Member No.: 557 |
He is a link to the Minor Planet Center's Electronic Circular for this object, posted today:
E2018-Y14 Note that the Delta (distance from Earth in AU) and the r (distance from sun in AU) are run together. For November 17th those values were 124.3330 and 125.2666 respectively. Also there is this which is a little more readable: 2018 VG18 In the orbital elements section the q (perihelion) is currently listed as 21.739 AU so it was closer at some point decades ago. But all those orbital elements are still pretty uncertain. It's currently on the way out on its orbit. |
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Jan 4 2019, 01:53 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 890 Joined: 18-November 08 Member No.: 4489 |
for those Celestia users here is a SPICE orbit add on for "2018 VG18"
http://forum.celestialmatters.org/viewtopi...?f=18&t=953 this assumes that spice orbits are set up and working , for that see: http://forum.celestialmatters.org/viewforum.php?f=18 |
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Feb 28 2019, 08:35 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 241 Joined: 16-May 06 From: Geneva, Switzerland Member No.: 773 |
And after FarOut... FarFarOut:
https://www.space.com/farfarout-most-distan...ystem-body.html "Astronomers just found an object that lies 140 astronomical units (AU) from the sun. That's 140 times the Earth-sun distance, which is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers)." Regards, Marc. |
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Mar 3 2019, 08:38 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
Am I the only one hoping that Voyager 2 is coincidentally going to fly by this?
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Mar 3 2019, 10:51 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 214 Joined: 30-December 05 Member No.: 628 |
While hoping for a coincidence of that magnitude, perhaps we should also worry about the possibility of a collision?
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Guest_Steve5304_* |
Mar 4 2019, 03:20 AM
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Guests |
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Mar 4 2019, 04:25 AM
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Code could be written to process those images. Most of the image processing code that's used today is very very heavily derived from the code written pre-Voyager
What's not working are the cameras and scan platforms on the spacecraft. They were turned off decades ago to save power to avoid browning out the spacecraft. |
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Mar 4 2019, 08:25 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
turning back on the cameras, scan platform and the other remote sensing instruments unfortunately would require more power than the poor old RTG would be capable of providing
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Guest_Steve5304_* |
Mar 4 2019, 11:30 PM
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#11
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Guests |
turning back on the cameras, scan platform and the other remote sensing instruments unfortunately would require more power than the poor old RTG would be capable of providing I had heard it was possible in an old paperback o read in the later 2000s..they would have to shut down other things tho and the probe would have to be programmed to turn those things back on at a later date...the biggest problem was the computers on earth and the scan platform...but its an interesting topic worthy of discussion. Im sure it would be worth trying should a flyby happen. To be honest tho the book i read may have been science fiction... For example only the camera and computer wpuld be powered...radio and other functions off. Who knows...would be something to have the old warhorse do something like that. Its been flying for 50 years |
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Mar 5 2019, 04:21 AM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Not gonna happen; there's nowhere near enough power capacity left, as Paolo said. Voyager is now exclusively a particles & fields mission for however much longer they last.
Moving on... -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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