New dwarf planet spotted at the very fringe of our solar system
Source: Washington Post
A previously unknown dwarf planet circles through the far reaches of our solar system, the International Astronomical Unions Minor Planet Center announced Tuesday. Officially designated 2015 TG387, the small and spherical object is probably a ball of ice. Astronomers first observed the dwarf planet on Oct. 13, 2015, from the Subaru telescope at Hawaiis Mauna Kea Observatories. Embracing the near-Halloween October spirit and for want of something pronounceable its discoverers nicknamed 2015 TG387 the Goblin.
The Goblin is about 300 kilometers in diameter, on the small end of a dwarf planet, said Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington who discovered the object along with colleagues at Northern Arizona University, University of Hawaii and the University of Oklahoma. Dwarf planet Pluto, by comparison, is six times as wide.
Sheppard has embarked on an ongoing survey to find tiny planetoids on the solar systems outer rim. Hes interested in the Goblin because it always stays well beyond the giant planet region, referring to the lineup of our solar systems four biggest planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Because 2015 TG387 exists so far away, speaking in terms of miles becomes unwieldy. Instead, astronomers refer to its orbit in astronomical units, or AU, where 1 AU is the distance between the sun and Earth. Pluto sits at an average of 40 AU from the sun. The Goblin comes no closer than 65 AU.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/10/02/new-dwarf-planet-spotted-very-fringe-our-solar-system/
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,750 posts)I've texted My Son the Astronomer asking him to call me when he's free and tell me all about this.
His area of research is exoplanets, so he's not looking for ones this close, but he'll probably know all about it.
Novembrist
(35 posts)And emphasize how tiny it is every single time it ever gets mentioned!
Maxheader
(4,366 posts)MosheFeingold
(3,051 posts)As in "Tyrian Lannister".
It should house the first outer space bar.
keithbvadu2
(36,369 posts)Interesting history of ancient scientists measuring distance to the sun.
The Liberal Lion
(1,414 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,157 posts)somewhere out there, which Sheppard thinks affects the orbits of small things like "the Goblin". He's put the chances for Planet Nine up from 60% to 80%.