Planet X Larger Than Pluto?

nova_planitia writes "The Minor Planet mailing list is buzzing with the discovery by an amateur astronomer of a 17th magnitude object 51 astronomical units from the Sun, tentatively designated 2003 EL61. For those not versed in astronomical lingo, this is an object several times brighter than Pluto even though it is 25% farther out from the Sun (the orbit vizualised by JPL). This means that barring a strangely reflective surface, this object is larger than Pluto, possibly Mars-sized! The debate whether Pluto is a planet is likely to get rekindled by this discovery."

Comments

Re:Broken Link, Naming Contest.

[mauledbydogs]

I think we need to get a little more real with planet naming. Forget the gods, let's call it Dave.

Trick to Finding This Object

[Rob Carr]

Astronomers were using too short a time span between pictures for them to see the change in position of something 51 AU out from the sun. The angle of the orbit to the ecliptic made it harder to find, too.

Since this was found so easily, one has to wonder just how many of them there are out there. This might be only the first of many.

This, by the way, is an excellent reason to call these things TNOs (Trans-Neptunian Objects). Who wants to memorize the 85 planets of our solar system?

Pioneer

[guitaristx]

Could this large object out there possibly be responsible for the Pioneer Anomaly?