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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.
More details (with animated gif) here: http://cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news...
(include measurements in SI units)
Miles - latin :D )
From "Mille" thousand
and the "s" is probably from "steps" (har har har
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.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
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.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
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.