Slashdot Mirror
New Object Found at Edge of Solar System
Rei writes to tell us NewScientist is reporting that a new object has been found beyond Pluto. The new object, nicknamed "Buffy", has an almost circular orbit which is tilted some 47 degrees off of most other bodies in our solar system. From the article: "Neptune has been blamed for scattering many other [Kuiper Belt Objects] into tilted paths. But these tend to show other signs of a past interaction with the giant planet, such as moving in elliptical paths and having one part of their orbit pass near Neptune's at 30 astronomical units from the Sun. [Buffy], however, follows a nearly circular path. And it is too distant to have come into direct contact with Neptune, traveling between 52 and 62 AU from the Sun. Its orbit is also too circular - and too small - to have been tilted by a passing star."
Gateway here we come!!!!
Wow! That's 52 times the distance between the sun and the earth (1 AE = 91 million miles) which places that object at a distance of 4.7Billion miles from the sun. Amazing to think that there actually exists any type of 'orbit' - makes me feel very very small...
Yes.. in old greek mythology, buffy the illegitimate daughter of thor who did sip the ambrosia and slay cerberus and then was expelled to the netheregion of the universe..
Dude, Thor is from the Norse pantheon. Otherwise, references are just about right.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Agreed theories about a companion star seem odd in that there is no evidence for a companion star, but twin stars are not "remarkably identical" -- the galaxy is populated by all sorts of mix-n-match stellar bodies.
I'm too lazy to read the article or to look up past slashdot posts, but hasn't this been discovered before? It seems like every few months scientists come out with a new "planet" beyond Pluto. Are they all "discovering" the same one, or are we up to ten objects beyond Pluto that also circle our sun?
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Or maybe it's because trying to imagine what 4.7 Billion miles away is in actual distance. It's easy to say oh yah 4 miles away, or 100, or even 1000's. But when you get into milions, and billions of miles. It's humbling to think that there is something out there, that far away. I personally think that is damn cool, and mind numbing at the same time.
oogly boogly!