Post by Merkuri on Mar 15, 2004 14:45:08 GMT -5
[From CNN.com: www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/15/distant.object/index.html ]
Scientists: Most distant object in solar system found
(CNN) -- Scientists may have discovered the solar system's most distant object, more than three times farther away from the sun than Pluto.
The object -- about 8 billion miles (12.8 billion kilometers) from Earth -- has been given the provisional name of Sedna, after the Inuit goddess who created sea creatures of the Arctic.
Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology and his team of astronomers, using the school's Palomar Observatory, found Sedna in November as part of an ongoing three-year outer solar system project. Days later, the high power Spitzer Space Telescope focused on the object.
Sedna is likely the largest object to be found circling the sun since the discovery of Pluto in 1930.
The finding has sparked debate over what constitutes a planet.
Initial details indicated Sedna to be made of ice and rock and to be of a smaller size than Pluto, with a diameter of more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers).
Many astronomers say Pluto, with a diameter of just under 1,500 miles (2,300 kilometers), is too small to be a termed a planet and is just one of many minor objects in the outer reaches of the solar system.
But those who argue Pluto is a planet are likely to push the assertion for Sedna to become the 10th planet in the solar system.
Brown will present the discovery during a NASA briefing Monday afternoon.
Scientists: Most distant object in solar system found
(CNN) -- Scientists may have discovered the solar system's most distant object, more than three times farther away from the sun than Pluto.
The object -- about 8 billion miles (12.8 billion kilometers) from Earth -- has been given the provisional name of Sedna, after the Inuit goddess who created sea creatures of the Arctic.
Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology and his team of astronomers, using the school's Palomar Observatory, found Sedna in November as part of an ongoing three-year outer solar system project. Days later, the high power Spitzer Space Telescope focused on the object.
Sedna is likely the largest object to be found circling the sun since the discovery of Pluto in 1930.
The finding has sparked debate over what constitutes a planet.
Initial details indicated Sedna to be made of ice and rock and to be of a smaller size than Pluto, with a diameter of more than 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers).
Many astronomers say Pluto, with a diameter of just under 1,500 miles (2,300 kilometers), is too small to be a termed a planet and is just one of many minor objects in the outer reaches of the solar system.
But those who argue Pluto is a planet are likely to push the assertion for Sedna to become the 10th planet in the solar system.
Brown will present the discovery during a NASA briefing Monday afternoon.
