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Discovery! Possible Dwarf Planet Found Far Beyond Pluto’s Orbit
Artist’s conception of Sedna, a dwarf planet in the solar system that only gets within 76 astronomical units (Earth-sun distances) of our sun. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
What is a dwarf planet? Some astronomers have been asking that question after Pluto was demoted from planethood almost a decade ago, partly due to discoveries of other worlds of similar proportions.
Today, astronomers announced the discovery of 2012 VP113, a world that, assuming its reflectivity is moderate, is 280 miles (450 kilometers) in size and orbiting even further away from the sun than Pluto or even the more distant Sedna (announced in 2004). If 2012 VP113 is made up mostly of ice, this would make it large (and round) enough to be a dwarf planet, the astronomers said.
Peering further into 2012 VP113′s discovery, however, brings up several questions. What are the boundaries of the Oort Cloud, the region of icy bodies where the co-discoverers say it resides? Was it placed there due to a sort of Planet X? And what is the definition of a dwarf planet anyway?
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Read the rest of Discovery! Possible Dwarf Planet Found Far Beyond Pluto’s Orbit (1,056 words)
© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2014. |
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Post tags: 2012 VP113, Eris, makemake, Oort cloud, planet x, Sedna
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Source: http://www.universetoday.com/110719/discovery-possible-dwarf-planet-found-far-beyond-plutos-orbit/
