Caltech Scientists Discover Object Half As Large As Pluto
Wo! I'm spun out! A new big planetoid (1,300 km) - and I lived when it was discovered!
From articles:
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have discovered a Kuiper belt object half the size of Pluto (above), a finding expected to raise further questions about Pluto's status as a planet.
The spherical object, dubbed Quaoar by the scientists who first spotted it in a digital sky image taken June 4 with a 1.2-meter telescope at Palomar Observatory, is the largest object to be discovered in the solar system since Pluto's discovery in 1930.
"Quaoar definitely hurts the case for Pluto being a planet," said Mike Brown, a Caltech associate professor who, along with post doctoral researcher Chad Trujillo, made the discovery. "If Pluto were discovered today, no one would even consider calling it a planet because it?s clearly a Kuiper belt object."
Quaoar (pronounced KWAH-o-ar) is named after the creation force of the Tongva tribe that originally inhabited the Los Angeles basin where Caltech is located.
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Quaoar, the newest planet . . . or is it?
October 08 2002
By Stephen Cauchi
Science Reporter
When is a planet not a planet? That's what astronomers will be asking after yesterday's announcement of the biggest planetary body discovered in the solar system in more than 70 years.
Quaoar is a round world that orbits the sun every 288 years, at a distance greater than any of the nine planets. At 1250 kilometres wide, it is bigger than any of the asteroids. In fact, it's bigger than all the asteroids put together.
Quaoar (pronounced Kwah-o-ar) is just over half the size of the smallest planet of the solar system, Pluto, which already struggles to be classified as a planet because of its size. For that matter, it is just over a third the size of our moon. But, unlike a moon, it does not orbit a planet.
What is it? An "ice dwarf", apparently, and, according to its discoverers, Mike Brown and Chad Trujilo of the California Institute of Technology, Quaoar (and Pluto) should be referred to as "Kuiper-belt objects". The Kuiper belt is like a second asteroid belt, but while most asteroids orbit between Mars and Jupiter the Kuiper belt is at the icy fringes of the solar system, far beyond the eighth planet, Neptune.
"Quaoar definitely hurts the case for Pluto being a planet," said Professor Brown. "If Pluto were discovered today, no one would even consider calling it a planet because it's clearly a Kuiper-belt object."
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PDF file on discovery:
http://www.gps.calte...apers/ps/qu.pdf
