New Dwarf Planet Discovered In Outer Solar System (seeker.com)

astroengine quotes a report from Seeker: Astronomers have found another Pluto-like dwarf planet located about 20 times farther away from the sun than Neptune. The small planet, dubbed 2015 RR245, is estimated to be about 435 miles in diameter and flying in an elliptical, 700-year orbit around the sun. At closest approach, RR245 will be about 3.1 billion miles from the sun, a milestone it is expected to next reach in 2096. At its most distant point, the icy world is located about 7.5 billion miles away. It was found by a joint team of astronomers using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Maunakea, Hawaii, in images taken in September 2015 and analyzed in February. The discovery was announced on Monday in the Minor Planet Electronic Circular.

Comments

Nibiru?

[Anonymous Coward]

THis could possibly be Nibiru, finally. Hoagland vindicated.

Re:Nibiru?

[hcs_$reboot]

Probably not. Nibiru is closer than that. The new dwarf planet is exactly where the UK will be in a few months.

Re:Nibiru?

[Anonymous Coward]

Worth pointing out, the math indicates there is still another planetary body out there, of considerable size. So we've just not spotted Nibiru yet.

What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's a mile?

Re:What's a mile?

[legRoom]

What's a mile?

It's a unit of length equal to 17.6 football fields.

Re:What's a mile?

[93 Escort Wagon]

What's a mile?

It's the distance light travels in roughly 1/186282 seconds.

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Football or soccer?

Re:What's a mile?

[ihtoit]

it's a unit of length approximately equal to 1.609E+13 angstroms.

Re: What's a mile?

[ihtoit]

it would be neither, since a regulation soccer pitch is 115 yards long, and an American football pitch is 120 yards long.

Re:What's a mile?

[Tomahawk]

International, nautical, Roman, Italiian, Arabic, long, British, Irish, Welsh, Scots, English, US Survey, or "metric"... can you be a little bit more specific as to which mile you are referring?

Hopefully this table will shed some light on on the complexity of the question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:What's a mile?

[hcs_$reboot]

A mile was a unit of linear measure. It was used until the early 21st century. It was equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards.

Re:What's a mile?

[angel'o'sphere]

Miles - latin
From "Mille" thousand
and the "s" is probably from "steps" (har har har :D )

So it means 1000 steps (which is actually half right but wrong).

It actually means 1000 paces (and a pace originally is a double step, now more or less synonymous to a step)

So, as the english have short legs the old english mile is shorter than the current american one, but I believe meanwhile both have the same length. Probably because either the irish or welsh have short legs, or the americans grew long legs to run from the british?

Than we have nautical miles, used in aviation and sea fare. Would make sense to use it in astronomy, too. Don't you think so? A nautical mile is significantly longer than a "paces mile". Probably because you can not walk over water or in thin air ... who knows?

On the other hand: in news like this I had preferred a distance given in AU or Light seconds/minutes, too.

A orbit varying between 3.x billion miles and 7.y billion miles or 4.5 billion km and 13 billion km says me: hm .... must be far.

Re:What's a mile?

[aevan]

Nautical miles are a lot easier once you get your sea legs.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nearly all those you mention are obsolete and no longer used.

The International mile and nautical mile are really the only ones most people are ever going to come across. The unqualified term "mile" can be assumed to be the international mile in most contexts, including this one. Further clarity is not needed.

Re:What's a mile?

[ag0ny]

What's a mile?

It's a river in mortherm Africa, the lomgest im the world. It crosses mamy coumtries amd emds im a big delta mear Cairo.

Re: What's a mile?

[legRoom]

it would be neither

I am using the golden standard of American science: 100 yards from goal line to goal line, without the end zones.

an American football pitch is 120 yards long.

In America, we have the liberty to throw balls as short or long of a distance as we like. It makes our games (like baseball) much more interesting.

Re:What's a mile?

[prefec2]

On space.com they provide the measurement in kilometer alongside mile

The exact size of 2015 RR245 is not yet known, but the researchers think it's about 435 miles (700 kilometers) wide. Pluto is the largest resident of the Kuiper Belt, with a diameter of 1,474 miles (2,371 km).

Therefore, this is most likely an international mile. However, who cares? They also provided the diameter in a present day standard for length.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the smallest allowed distance between two milestones.

Re: What's a mile?

[crispytwo]

what's a yard?

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

what's a yard?

The semi-landscaped area adjacent to a house.

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure it's not your fault you have no physical activity now - it's all the fault of those evil gym teachers decades ago. Reality check: see a doctor, see a psychologist if necessary, and see a nutritionist. Life is too short to waste pining over BS in the past, and no matter what you can be healthy now.

Re:What's a mile?

[reboot246]

It's forty eleven dozen feet, just like the old Southern expression.
40x11x12=5280

A foot is what is on the bottom of your leg.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

3.1 Billion miles is roughly 2,931,582,089,552 Smoots, (~3 Terasmoots), the only proper unit of measurement for Astronomical distances... even if it's named after another Smoot...

Captcha: planets

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

what's a yard?

1 / 220 Furlongs

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Butthurt much, fatso nerdo? Sports are here to stay. They're immensely popular and athletes are admired. Gey over it.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Than we have nautical miles, used in aviation and sea fare. Would make sense to use it in astronomy, too. Don't you think so? A nautical mile is significantly longer than a "paces mile". Probably because you can not walk over water or in thin air ... who knows?

A nautical mile is one arc-minute of latitude. There are 60 nautical miles in one degree of latitude.
This makes calculations of track lengths and therefore positions on a global scale *much* easier, which is why the unit was invented.

Re: What's a mile?

[mrbester]

1 / 22 chains, you mean. Or half a fathom.

Re:What's a mile?

[CrimsonAvenger]

They also provided the diameter in a present day standard for length.

A present day standard? The km was standardized in the late 18th century. The US Statute Mile wasn't standardized till the late 19th century....

Re: What's a mile?

[Rei]

You mean a garden?

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Football or soccer?

In most of the world these two are synonyms, with the latter being virtually unknown. Handegg is an almost entirely american thing.

And both need to die. I have enough of shouting drunks spilling out of pubs (there's a pub right outside my house), cities demolished by hooligans, mainstream news spammed out, most of tuition money (US univs) or taxes (here) being wasted. When I was a kid, on 95% of phys edu lessons we were given a ball and put on the pitch, with fatties and the likes of me being expected to not get in the way -- with obvious effects for my health. Now imagine all that money and effort put to some actual good use, like, say, actually promoting public health instead of circenses for the plebs.

Sorry, he meant 17 "not the sport where you get beheaded for playing it" fields.

Re:What's a mile?

[prefec2]

It is not the age, which makes the mile odd, it is the fact that everyone else uses the metric system, but not the US and two other countries. It is an idiosyncrasy.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

awww
I'm so smart I don't even recognize your old fogey units.
look upon my ignorance ye mighty and despair

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Going to need that in royal cubits here. You and your modern ways will never catch on.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Through a metric of imperial vacuum? :)

Re:What's a mile?

[Rei]

Agreed. I'm working with an engineer from the US on a project and the difference is a constant headache for us. It's not just about calculations, it's also about intuitive understandings (if I say a beam that's 40x80mm, or he says one that's 3"x3", it's important that the other get an immediate sense of what exactly that means). It's about knowledge of the market, whether elements in particular dimensions are actually available. It's about the ability to double check other people's calculations just by looking at them, without having to run everything through a bunch of conversions. It's about the need to constantly insert conversions into everything you write just to make sure that the other person is on the same page. And yes, it's about mistakes. I wasted a lot of time on an approach that depended on M10 screws when the other person had intended #10 screws... my fault on that one, but still, it's frustrating that this difference in measures and standards exists.

Re:What's a mile?

[jbengt]

Even in the US, three different lengths of a mile are still in common use.

Re: What's a mile?

[Type44Q]

and athletes are admired.

Shit; how can we argue with that?!

Just kidding; the above reasoning alone shows you to be a fucking moron. No, really.

Re: What's a mile?

[Type44Q]

No, they're knot...

Re:What's a mile?

[The Grim Reefer]

It is not the age, which makes the mile odd, it is the fact that everyone else uses the metric system, but not the US and two other countries.

Actually the US, Myanmar, Canada, India, and several others still use imperial units for certain things. If you ask someone in Canada how much they weigh, they'll tell you in lbs. The speed limit signs in the UK are still in MPH. Gas/petrol is still sold by the gallon in several countries.

Re:What's a mile?

[UnknownSoldier]

If politicians weren't retards they would list BOTH units on speed signs to help people transition over. Would cost a ton of money for sign replacement but that can be amortized over the years.

--
WTB: Apple ][ ThunderClock Plus peripheral card

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's a mile?

About 52.155 femtoparsecs

Re:What's a mile?

[frank_adrian314159]

What they take, if you give them an inch.

Re: What's a mile?

[Applehu Akbar]

Butthurt much, fatso nerdo? Sports are here to stay. They're immensely popular and athletes are admired. Gey over it.

We think of the US as being sports-minded, but that comment referenced a fan rowdiness problem that is far worse in Europe. We have no experience with hordes of brawling fans who take over entire trains and trash airline flights.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Instead of project metrics we can now talk about project imperials.

Re: What's a mile?

[malditaenvidia]

A miserable pile of inches.

Re:What's a mile?

[malditaenvidia]

Doing this on road signs, specially speed limit and maximum height and weight ones could result in disaster.

Re:What's a mile?

[laie_techie]

If politicians weren't retards they would list BOTH units on speed signs to help people transition over. Would cost a ton of money for sign replacement but that can be amortized over the years.

I actually support putting both units on signs as they need replacement, though not for the reason you suggest. How many millions of tourists visit the US per year and have troubles with our signage in miles?

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

close to a furschlugginer potrzebie, i believe. that should help clear this up. it would take about 100 cowznofskis to get there by current technology. ill be back in a few kovacs to see if this has helped.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Heretic! burn him! this is now forbidden to be spoken of!

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

miles - latin
i like sketches of spain too, but lets keep on topic

Re:What's a mile?

[dryeo]

The US Statute mile was standardized in 1959.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:What's a mile?

[dryeo]

Try telling the government your weight and at least in Canada, they'll want your mass in kg. Same when making a purchase, the price might be advertised in lbs but it'll be sold in grams or kg.
We're just bilingual

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

Republic credits WILL do fine.

Re: What's a mile?

[O-Deka-K]

But enough talk, halve at you!

Re:What's a mile?

[UnknownSoldier]

> as they need replacement

Yes, that was implied. Thanks for clarifying that!

The tourist is an interesting angle! That's a great idea that complements this one.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

You'll find out tonight, when you're crying in your beer over it . . . again.

Get used to it. You'll never change us.

Fucking wanker.

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's soccer?

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

A unit of measurement used to land people on the moon.

Re:What's a mile?

[thinkwaitfast]

I got a GPS for my car ten years ago and haven't looked at a road mileage sign in a decade. What would be the point of renumbering all the road signs if we're all going to have self driving cars next year. Other than being a jobs program?

The biggest problem is that cities are laid out in mile grids, so saying 'go 4 miles' is the same as saying go four stop lights. Same goes for freeway ramps. Seven miles - take the 7th offramp. Saying get off in 11.2km would be very confusing for most people and necessarily pointless.

Re:What's a mile?

[thinkwaitfast]

AFAIK, we don't have to tell the government our weight in the US. Dr's always record it in Kg for personal use.

Re: What's a mile?

[GuB-42]

It is what scammers call a "meter".

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

That brought a snile to my face

Re: What's a mile?

[Tomahawk]

Take the 4th right, take exit number x, or the exit for downtown. Also, not all city blocks are based on miles on all US cities. Manhattan has rectangular blocks, so heading up 5th 4 blocks wouldn't even be a mile (it might be a kilometre).

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

>A nautical mile is significantly longer than a "paces mile". Probably because you can not walk over water or in thin air ...

Says you, mortal! ;)

Re:What's a mile?

[laie_techie]

I got a GPS for my car ten years ago and haven't looked at a road mileage sign in a decade. What would be the point of renumbering all the road signs if we're all going to have self driving cars next year. Other than being a jobs program?

The biggest problem is that cities are laid out in mile grids, so saying 'go 4 miles' is the same as saying go four stop lights. Same goes for freeway ramps. Seven miles - take the 7th offramp. Saying get off in 11.2km would be very confusing for most people and necessarily pointless.

Self-driving cars are still far-enough away that we do need signs. Signs are also helpful for bicyclists and pedestrians. GPS is a non-issue as users can specify desired units in their preferences. Map services are getting better all the time, but I wouldn't trust Google Map 100% of the time over road signs.

Some places use the grid system, but not all; Utah does. There are 8 "city blocks" to the mile, and 100 house numbers per "city block". Often there is an ordinal saying the relationship to the center of the city (intersection of Main Street and Center Street). In these cases "city block" is a distance unit which may or may not refer to a physical block (I once lived on 1834 South). Utah uses the closest mile marker as the exit number; GPS still says "In X miles take exit 306 for 600 South". My wife's GPC says "In Y km take exit 306 for 600 South". The fact that exit 306 is near mile marker 306 is irrelevant to GPS. Please note that some mile markers have multiple exits (A-D for example), while you may go 20+ miles without an exit. Knowing how these number are derived definitely gives those drivers an advantage, but is now necessary knowledge.

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

1609m

Re:What's a mile?

[slashdot_commentator]

Pluto is the largest sized TNO by volume. Eris has ~27% more mass than Pluto. Eris is actually the largest resident of the KB. Eris is also the third-most distant known TNO.

Re:What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can have no problems visualising Imperial measurements - they are designed to fit the human frame and measuring requirement.

A foot is about a foot length. An inch is the length of the first thumb joint. A yard is an arm's length. Unless you are SEVERELY disabled, Imperial is easy to visualise.

I won't go on about the huge advantages of base 60 when you are doing sums in your head, but you get the picture. Imperial was designed to be used by people. Metric wasn't.

Re: What's a mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

a corruption of the shortening of "Association Football" to assoc.

Re:What's a mile?

[Rei]

(pulls out a tape measurer)

I have large feet and they're only 9" long.
I don't know what you're defining as "the first thumb joint". On my hand, depending on how it's defined, I can get measurements from 1 1/4 inches to nearly 2 inches.
My arm is 2/3rds of a yard long.

These are some pretty lousy "standards". Furthermore, one could use this to justify any system of measurements. Example: My pinky nail is 1cm wide. Heel to my hip is 1 meter. Creases on my fingers are 1mm. And these are actually pretty accurate measurements.

How on earth is base 60 advantageous for doing sums? Our numeric system is decimal, why on earth would you want a non-decimal base?

Re: What's a mile?

[ag0ny]

That brought a snile to my face

I think you neant "ny".

Re:What's a mile?

[dryeo]

They always ask me my weight when I renew my drivers license (every 5 years), I answer in lbs and they convert it. That's my Provincial government and the other Provincial ID I have (medical coverage) doesn't have my weight on it. Don't have any Federal ID such as a passport but I'd guess it also has weight and height.

Re:What's a mile?

[radarskiy]

Back in my day, our steam tables were in BTUs per pound! But no, we didn't like it.... because it was thermodynamics. Fuck that shit.

Re:What's a mile?

[cwsumner]

A mile was a unit of linear measure. It was used until the early 21st century. It was equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards.

The only "real" mile is the nautical mile, which is 6000 feet. 8-}
Spoken as a sailor...

Re:What's a mile?

[cwsumner]

A "pace" is from one left footprint to the next left footprint. Or it will work with the right.

Mechanical pedometers click when the foot hits the ground, so they measure paces. And it is easier to count when hiking.

If you are reading hiking guides or old maps, don't get them confused with steps. It could be a pain... 8-)

More details (with animated gif) here

[Tomahawk]

More details (with animated gif) here: http://cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news...
(include measurements in SI units)

units

[Anonymous Coward]

why use meters or miles anyway? AU feels more natural in these distances

Re:units

[I'm New Around Here]

But AU isn't exactly 'sciencey', is it?

Re:units

[Anonymous Coward]

Why use Neptune as a distance reference? Why not either Earth or Pluto?

Re: units

[Anonymous Coward]

Because neptune is the farthest planet.

Re:units

[thinkwaitfast]

No, but it is SI. And pedanticism is what it's all about, not usefulness or practicality.

Re:units

[thinkwaitfast]

I do astronomy as a hobby and am very familiar with large numbers, math and all things sciency and it's still still all abstract to me. The only other reasonable comparison is how many times further Pluto is than Neptune (and I don't know). Unless you are an astronomer, what would a Earth or Pluto distance reference do for you exactly other than trying to impress people. And if this is all that you're going for, just make up numbers. No one is going to check or even remember what you said. Pluto is 112,765,532,001,875,993 times as far from me right now as the grocery store. There, now you still know nothing but can look smarter to people who are impressed by such things.

Re:units

[Anonymous Coward]

I do astronomy as a hobby and am very familiar with large numbers, math and all things sciency and it's still still all abstract to me. The only other reasonable comparison is how many times further Pluto is than Neptune (and I don't know). Unless you are an astronomer, what would a Earth or Pluto distance reference do for you exactly other than trying to impress people. And if this is all that you're going for, just make up numbers. No one is going to check or even remember what you said. Pluto is 112,765,532,001,875,993 times as far from me right now than the grocery store. There, now you still know nothing but can look smarter to people who are impressed by such things.

FTFY.

Not 20 times farther

[KiloByte]

located about 20 times farther away from the sun than Neptune

It's perihelion is only 34 AU, aphelion 120 AU. Ie, it's between 1.13 and 4 times as far as Neptune.

Re:Not 20 times farther

[I'm New Around Here]

I noticed that issue as well. Googleing for Neptune, shows it is roughly 2.8 billion miles from the sun, and this new object is stated to range from 3.1 billion to 7.5 billion.

I don't know where they get the 20 factor.

Re:Not 20 times farther

[Anonymous Coward]

A small black hole was passing by while they made the initial measurements. The only possible explanation.

Re:Not 20 times farther

[Rei]

It's perihelion is only 34 AU, aphelion 120 AU. Ie, it's between 1.13 and 4 times as far as Neptune.

Which unfortunately makes it a lot less interesting. I was hoping that they'd found a new sednoid. This planet has been almost certainly scattered by Neptune, rather than some undiscovered distant object.

Still, it really drives the point home about how little we know about our own solar system, given that we're still finding things this large, this close. Our ability to detect them is based on how much light they reflect, which is in turn based off how much light they receive, which drops with the square of their distance. So you have to double the radius to increase the cross section proportional to the light loss with every doubling of distance. So this is equivalent to finding an object the size of Mars at ~400 AU. And there could be objects even larger than this at the distance it was found without us having seen them; this is far from the limits of what we know for certain. We know amazingly little about what's in the Kuiper Belt, and even less about what's beyond.

I really can't wait for the LSST to come online so we can actually start to get a better idea of what's in our own bloody solar system ;) And even if it doesn't find any "planet X" type objects itself, it should hopefully find a large enough population of distant bodies to pinpoint any "planet X" objects via their orbits (wherein JWST could be used for followup observations).

Yes but

[vikingpower]

does it run Linux ?

Bigger than you might think

[oakgrove]

With a diameter of 435 miles, the surface area is almost the size of Alaska![0]

[0] 594,468 vs 663,267

Re:Bigger than you might think

[Anonymous Coward]

True, but put another way it is smaller even than Plutos main moon Charon, 753 miles vs ~435 miles. So its not particularly big either. I'm still hoping for an Earth sized (or larger) monster lurking on the fringes of our solar system. I'd like to think that such a discovery would get the public a little interested in space again, though the biggest impediment to space access remains cost (some technical issues, but mostly innovation/imagination issues).

A Rogue Jupiter more and more likely...

[BlueCoder]

In my opinion...

The bigger it is the slower the periodic cycle but the more dramatic the events it would deliver would be. Say on the order of 200,000 years.

Even it it doesn't collide with another planted it could send thousands of asteroids on trajectories that could impact the earth in tens of thousands of years.

Re:A Rogue Jupiter more and more likely...

[Rakshasa Taisab]

The bigger it is the slower the periodic cycle but the more dramatic the events it would deliver would be.

No it isn't. The mass of the object does not affect its orbital period at all. A speck of dust has the same orbital velocity and period as a giant jupiter.

Though it is slightly more complicated than that as the object also influences the object it orbits around.

Re:A Rogue Jupiter more and more likely...

[CrimsonAvenger]

The bigger it is the slower the periodic cycle but the more dramatic the events it would deliver would be.

No it isn't. The mass of the object does not affect its orbital period at all. A speck of dust has the same orbital velocity and period as a giant jupiter.

I suspect he meant that the bigger it is, the farther away it has to be to have not been detected. Which implies a longer orbit for a larger object....

Re: A Rogue Jupiter more and more likely...

[Type44Q]

it could send thousands of asteroids on trajectories that could impact the earth in tens of thousands of years.

Presumably it would already have done that.

Re:A Rogue Jupiter more and more likely...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, just that the mass of the sun outweighs everything else in the solar system by such a large margin that it becomes irrelevant (just like the earth outweighs things on it's surface by a very large margin). Jupiter is only 1/1000 a solar mass

Jupiter mass : 1.8986×10^27
Sun mass: 1.98855x10^30

Not Pluto like, small for a dwarf planet

[Anonymous Coward]

The Diameter of Ceres is about twice as large.

What about Uranus?

[Anonymous Coward]

This dwarf planet is also beyond Uranus, but does that get a mention? Of course not. As usual, all mention of Uranus is censored by Big Astronomy in their never-ending quest to clamp down on any mention of Uranus, however slight. It's as though Uranus doesn't exist.

Political correctness gone mad.

Re:What about Uranus?

[ChunderDownunder]

i blame the Klingons.

Are they sure...

[bzn]

that they're not just looking at Pluto?

Re:Are they sure...

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously?

so they called it a planet

[Anonymous Coward]

And if it is a planet ( dwarf, even ) then Pluto must be reinstated as a planet.
Like when I was a kid, even.

The arbitrary elimination/designation of Pluto as 'not a planet' just reeks of egos and assholes gone wild.

Beware: the article is NSFW

[Alain Williams]

There is a whole section titled ''Where Do Baby Planets Come From?'', the sort of thing that would be banned on facebook. It then gets worse, the video presenter (Dr Ian O'neill) starts by saying ''from the ashes of your dead parents'', he has obviously been reading too many novels by Stephen King.

:-)

OMG, its orbit is ELLIPTICAL?

[jeffb (2.718)]

Now, there's a shocker!

Since the summary stated a period for the orbit, we can assume it isn't hyperbolic. A truly circular or parabolic orbit would be news, since exact numbers like that are hard to come by. And if it were a radial (i.e. intersecting) orbit, well, that would be big news.

Maybe they were looking for "highly eccentric"?

Neat, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Neat, but it doesn't sound like the gas giant that they were searching for, yet. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/150119-new-ninth-planet-solar-system-space.

There are all sorts of dwarf planet sized objects in the solar system. (Not to take away from the newcomer's coolness or distance.)

Re:So I can see Russia from there?

[Anonymous Coward]

;-)

Planet Nine alignemnt

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone know if RR245's orbit is consistent with the alignment signaling the tug of the proposed planet Nine?

Re:Planet Nine alignemnt

[RockDoctor]

That was my first question too.

With a perihelion distance (~34AU) fairly close to the distance of Neptune (30AU), then the orbit of 2015 RR245 will be controlled by Neptune, rather than the hypothesised Brown-Batygin "Planet 9."

Re: Republicans raped me in Brazil

[Anonymous Coward]

They hate and rape everyone? Except Hillary, they can't seem to touch her. Maybe Bill is a triple-secret Republican.

Nope.

[whitroth]

Ceres is almost twice that size, *almost* the size of our Moon.

Meanwhile, for many decades, the books for kids and teens always said that the Earth and Moon could be considered a double-planet system.

Pluto is almost half again the size of our Moon.

"Equal rights for Pluto! Pluto is a planet!" - young Plutonian alien in Worldcon masquerade, 2008

Re:Nope.

[RockDoctor]

Meanwhile, for many decades, the books for kids and teens always said that the Earth and Moon could be considered a double-planet system.

Also, for many decades books for adults about kids waned that masturbation can make you go blind. Did that make it true?

A mile isn't far...

[Chocolate Teapot]

... when you are travelling at this speed.

But...

[Chocolate Teapot]

... it's getting closer by the second

solar system size

[bmorency]

Since they found another planet orbiting our sun but is farther out how does that affect the news of Voyager 1 leaving our solar system a while back? Does that mean it still hasn't left the solar system yet or is it farther than this planet? They thought it was in interstellar space.

Re:solar system size

[RockDoctor]

Every story in the technical press has covered the point that whether or not Voyager 1 has "left the Solar system" depends very critically on what your definition of "the edge of the Solar system" is.

One fairly popular suggestion is to use the heliopause - the area swept of interstellar gas by the exudations of the Sun - as a boundary. In which case, the magnetometers and plasma instruments on Voyager 1 do appear to be detecting the "edge". By that definition.

Of course, there is no reason I'm aware of to believe that the boundary is sharp. Unless you have some reason to believe that, in which case, do tell.