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NASA-funded researchers have discovered the most distant object orbiting Earth's sun. The object is a mysterious planet-like body three times farther from Earth than Pluto.
"The sun appears so small from that distance that you could completely block it out with the head of a pin," said Dr. Mike Brown, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif., associate professor of planetary astronomy and leader of the research team. The object, called Sedna for the Inuit goddess of the ocean, is 13 billion kilometers (8 billion miles) away, in the farthest reaches of the solar system.
This is likely the first detection of the long-hypothesized "Oort cloud," a faraway repository of small icy bodies that supplies the comets that streak by Earth. Other notable features of Sedna include its size and reddish color. After Mars, it is the second reddest object in the solar system. It is estimated Sedna is approximately three-fourths the size of Pluto. Sedna is likely the largest object found in the solar system since Pluto was discovered in 1930...
https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/H...discovered.html
Now that is interesting. I wonder if they will change all the science books to include this or if it is too 'small of a thing' to make a big deal about. What is funny about this... we are so busy looking at other galaxies, but we obviously are still so far from knowing what is in our own solar system.
Offtopic but, I wonder what they will have interplanetary travel... what is the hold back? |