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."
This is why nerds don't get to make real decisions for the most part. Scientists seemed to have slipped past the system. Only obesely pork-laden beaurocrats with ties to Saudi oil should get to make monumentous decisions like this.
Hey, at least they'll have cool names. Like "Blue thunder freedom falcon" or something.
makes me feel very very small...
It's ok, you post to Slashdot, it's not like any woman is going to find out about how small you are.
It probably got tilted by the gravitational pull of Michael Moore's ass.
Hrmph - I parsed the last sentence as
"However, my sympathy for astrologers remains is limited." and went WTF ???