Canadian discovers new dwarf planet on the edge of our solar system
Postmedia Network
First posted: Tuesday, July 12, 2016 04:09 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, July 12, 2016 04:18 PM EDT
Pluto, you have a brother. A Canadian has discovered a new mini planet on the extreme outskirts of our solar system.
Canadian National Research Council astronomer J.J. Kavelaars at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii recently discovered the tiny ice ball, so remote that it takes 700 years to orbit the sun.
It's only about 700 kms in diameter, and has the unsexy name 2015 RR245 for now.
Scientists are still in the early stages of learning more about this mysterious satellite.
"It's either small and shiny, or large and dull," University of Victoria postdoctoral researcher Michele Bannister said in a statement Monday. Either way, it is just large enough to be round, astronomers say, allowing it to be classified as a dwarf planet.
Officially, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognizes five dwarf planets - Ceres, Eris, Makemake, Haumea, and poor Pluto, which was recently demoted.
This latest planet was detected last fall, but it wasn't uncovered by human eyes until Kavelaars combed through the survey images in February.
- with files from The Washington Post
This handout document released on July 12, 2016 by the CNRS shows the trajectory (yellow line) of the 2015 RR245 "dwarf planet" in the distant Solar System on an eccentric orbit far beyond Neptune. Dubbed RR245, the icy world is currently about 9.7 billion kilometres (six billion miles) from the Sun -- 65 times further than Earth, said astronomer Jean-Marc Petit of France's CNRS research institute. (AFP PHOTO / CNRS / Alex Parker)
Canadian discovers new dwarf planet on the edge of our solar system | Canada | N
Postmedia Network
First posted: Tuesday, July 12, 2016 04:09 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, July 12, 2016 04:18 PM EDT
Pluto, you have a brother. A Canadian has discovered a new mini planet on the extreme outskirts of our solar system.
Canadian National Research Council astronomer J.J. Kavelaars at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii recently discovered the tiny ice ball, so remote that it takes 700 years to orbit the sun.
It's only about 700 kms in diameter, and has the unsexy name 2015 RR245 for now.
Scientists are still in the early stages of learning more about this mysterious satellite.
"It's either small and shiny, or large and dull," University of Victoria postdoctoral researcher Michele Bannister said in a statement Monday. Either way, it is just large enough to be round, astronomers say, allowing it to be classified as a dwarf planet.
Officially, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognizes five dwarf planets - Ceres, Eris, Makemake, Haumea, and poor Pluto, which was recently demoted.
This latest planet was detected last fall, but it wasn't uncovered by human eyes until Kavelaars combed through the survey images in February.
- with files from The Washington Post
This handout document released on July 12, 2016 by the CNRS shows the trajectory (yellow line) of the 2015 RR245 "dwarf planet" in the distant Solar System on an eccentric orbit far beyond Neptune. Dubbed RR245, the icy world is currently about 9.7 billion kilometres (six billion miles) from the Sun -- 65 times further than Earth, said astronomer Jean-Marc Petit of France's CNRS research institute. (AFP PHOTO / CNRS / Alex Parker)
Canadian discovers new dwarf planet on the edge of our solar system | Canada | N
