Scientists have found a new world orbiting our solar system. It’s more than 3 billion kilometers - about 1,864,113,580 miles - further away from the Sun than Pluto and 40 years away from Earth in a space shuttle. SCIENTISTS have found a new world orbiting the solar system – more than 3 billion kilometres further away from the Sun than Pluto and 40 years away from Earth in a space shuttle.
NASA is expected to announce today or tomorrow the discovery of the space object, which some experts believe could be a new planet.
It is provisionally known as Sedna, after the Inuit goddess of the sea.
The discovery of Sedna – 10 billion kilometres from Earth – is a testament to the new generation of high-powered telescopes.
Measurements suggest Sedna’s diameter is almost 2000km, or 6,561,680 feet – the biggest find in the solar system since Pluto was discovered 74 years ago. It is believed to be made of ice and rock, and is slightly smaller than Pluto.
The find will reignite the debate over what constitutes a planet. Some scientists claim even Pluto is too small to count as one.
According to astronomer Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, who discovered Sedna, there could be many other new worlds orbiting the Sun and waiting to be discovered.
“Sedna is very big, and much further out than previous discoveries,” he said. “I’m pretty sure there are other large bodies up there too.”
But physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies, of Sydney’s Macquarie University, said it was folly to describe Sedna as a planet. “It’s fun, it’s exciting, but let’s keep it in proportion,” Professor Davies said yesterday.
He said scientists had known for “a decade or so the solar system does not come to an abrupt halt” and there were a number of “planetessimals” or little planets, like Sedna.
can you dudes send a pitcure of sedna~s orbit for my class?
this site is awesome i come to this site every day to see if you have new information on some planets. some call me a nerd but i love this site.
yo yo yo your website is my new homepage now cuz it’s so cool!
sup um can u like give more info bout the planet,”Sedna”?
On 15 March 2004, astronomers from Caltech, Gemini Observatory, and Yale University announced the discovery of the coldest, most distant object known to orbit the sun. The object was found at a distance 90 times greater than that from the sun to the earth — about 3 times further than Pluto, the most distant known planet.
The discovery was made on the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory east of San Diego on 14 November 2003 by the team of Mike Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory) and David Rabinowitz (Yale).
Because of its frigid temperatures, the team has named the object Sedna, after the Inuit goddess of the sea from whom all sea creatures were created.
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/sedna/