5/25/2023 0 Comments Tech x and tiny planet![]() The orbits of both Sedna and VP113 - as well as a few other objects near the edge of the Kuiper belt - suggest that a massive body is shepherding these objects into similar orbital configurations. One of these objects could be what is known as a super-Earth - a planet larger than the Earth but smaller than Uranus. ![]() This is because many of the inner Oort cloud objects are so distant that even very large ones would be too faint to detect with current technology." "Some of these inner Oort cloud objects could rival the size of Mars or even Earth. "The search for these distant inner Oort cloud objects beyond Sedna and 2012 VP113 should continue, as they could tell us a lot about how our Solar System formed and evolved," Sheppard said. Yet it is only one of what Sheppard and Trujillo think could be around 900 objects with similar orbits and sizes larger than 1000 kilometres. At its farthest point (the aphelion), VP113 hits 446AU. The Kuiper belt is between 30 and 50AU, and Sedna orbits at 76AU. It also has the greatest known distance of any object orbiting the sun - 12 billion kilometres at its closest point (the perihelion), about 80 times the distance of the Earth, or 80AU (astronomical units). VP113 has a pinkish hue due to radiation damage that alters the composition of the ice, methane and carbon dioxide that make up the planet. The planetoid's orbit and surface properties were then determined using the Magellan 6.5-meter telescope at Carnegie's Las Campanas Observatory. It has the largest field-of-view of any large telescope, meaning it can detect faint objects unseen by other telescopes. VP113 was spotted using the new 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) in Chile. ![]() "This is an extraordinary result that redefines our understanding of our Solar System," says Linda Elkins-Tanton, director of Carnegie's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Until the discovery of VP113, there was only thought to be one object past the Kuiper belt - the 995-kilometre diameter planetoid Sedna, discovered in 2003. The solar system had previously been defined by the Kuiper belt, a field of icy debris - including Pluto - that extends out beyond Neptune. They have extrapolated its presence based on a gravitational effect on VP113's orbit, as well as other objects in the Oort cloud. Named 2012 VP113, it is thought to be just one of thousands of objects that are thought to make up the inner Oort cloud.Īlthough VP113 is just 450 kilometres across, Sheppard and Trujillo have also found evidence that there may be a much bigger planet out there. Out beyond the known edges of our solar system, Carnegie Institution for Science's Scott Sheppard and Gemini Obervatory's Chadwick Trujillo have discovered a dwarf planet orbiting the sun. Our solar system is now officially just a little bit bigger. Sedna's orbit is orange, and VP113 is red.Ī dwarf planet out beyond Pluto has been found orbiting our sun - and there may be another planet 10 times the size of Earth. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are shown by solid purple lines, while the Kuiper belt is depicted by the dotted blue region. Orbit diagram for the outer solar system.
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