New Dwarf Planet Discovered Beyond Neptune
- 8 years ago
Astronomers with the Outer Solar System Origins Survey, or OSSOS, have discovered a new dwarf planet.
Astronomers with the Outer Solar System Origins Survey, or OSSOS, have discovered a new dwarf planet beyond Neptune.
Called 2015 RR245, the small, frozen object was found using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope located in Maunakea, Hawaii.
Images were first picked up by the powerful apparatus in September 2015, and noticed by researchers in February of this year.
Dr. Michele Bannister, one of the member of the research team, said, “The icy worlds beyond Neptune trace how the giant planets formed and then moved out from the Sun. They let us piece together the history of our Solar System. But almost all of these icy worlds are painfully small and faint: it's really exciting to find one that's large and bright enough that we can study it in detail.”
Among the many interesting facets of the dwarf planet is it’s incredibly large elliptical orbit.
Experts estimate it takes the celestial orb about 700 years to make a full trek around the sun.
Astronomers with the Outer Solar System Origins Survey, or OSSOS, have discovered a new dwarf planet beyond Neptune.
Called 2015 RR245, the small, frozen object was found using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope located in Maunakea, Hawaii.
Images were first picked up by the powerful apparatus in September 2015, and noticed by researchers in February of this year.
Dr. Michele Bannister, one of the member of the research team, said, “The icy worlds beyond Neptune trace how the giant planets formed and then moved out from the Sun. They let us piece together the history of our Solar System. But almost all of these icy worlds are painfully small and faint: it's really exciting to find one that's large and bright enough that we can study it in detail.”
Among the many interesting facets of the dwarf planet is it’s incredibly large elliptical orbit.
Experts estimate it takes the celestial orb about 700 years to make a full trek around the sun.