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New Dwarf Planet Discovered

Gord_in_Toronto

Penultimate Amazing
Gord_in_Toronto
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Jul 22, 2006
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Dwarf planet spotted at solar system’s outer fringe

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/tech...t-solar-systems-outer-fringe/article30854098/

The frozen orb, designated 2015 RR245 until it gets an official name, is now located 65 times farther from the sun than Earth, or about twice Pluto’s current distance, but in its elliptical orbit it ventures well beyond that. A mere dot as seen with telescopes, the object measures about 700 kilometres across – a bit smaller than Northwestern Ontario – based on its relative brightness and distance.
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Has an interesting diagram as to how much "stuff" there is in orbit around the Sun.
 
I don't know what that means. What is that in football fields or Libraries of Congress?

[ETA] Square Smoots would also be acceptable.
 
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Gee thanks. As if I didn't have enough to keep me awake at night, now I've got this image to deal with - an entire planet full of midgets. Creepy.
 
After the object first turned up in survey images taken last fall by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), Dr. Bannister verified its motion and identity as a bright and therefore large member of the Kuiper Belt. Details of the find were then reported to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., which acts as the international clearing house for such discoveries.
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I didn't read the whole article, but it sounds like they basically just sort of happened upon it by surveying the sky with powerful telescopes. Pretty crazy when you think about how far away this object is and how small it is. There's a hell of a lot of empty space between here and there and yet somehow in that vast void we've managed to find this small world. Pretty cool.
 
Dave Rogers said:
And in cross-sectional area it's about 23 times the size of Wales.

Dave
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Sorry, I never did get on with the new fangled country system of comparison - what's that in inanimate objects? Albert Halls or olympic swimming pools will do.

Cool news though
 
Roboramma said:
I didn't read the whole article, but it sounds like they basically just sort of happened upon it by surveying the sky with powerful telescopes. Pretty crazy when you think about how far away this object is and how small it is. There's a hell of a lot of empty space between here and there and yet somehow in that vast void we've managed to find this small world. Pretty cool.
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If you look at the article you'll see they include a short video (probably a GIF -- I'm not bothering to go back and take a look). This illustrates the working of a Blink_comparatorWP. Historically searching using the comparator was done visually. These days the work can be done by computer software. There is still an awful lot of sky to scan however. :cool:
 
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