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A Friend for Pluto: Astronomers Find New Dwarf Planet in Our Solar System

94 points by daegloe 10y ago

bobbles 10y ago
It would be great if they went into more detail on how the 'spot the difference' system works
1024core 10y ago
Is the image data publicly available?
- japaget 10y ago
  Yes, see here:http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gerdes/2014_UZ224.html http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gerdes/2014_UZ224.html
  - 1024core 10y ago
    I just see a couple of samples there. I'd like to know if the images collected by the telescope are publicly available in the original format.
M_Grey 10y ago
330 miles... that seems so small, and it's so far away. It would be a truly haunting experience to stand on that surface and look at the faint pinprick of Sol.
- ssijak 10y ago
  A little bit smaller and it would be a dwarf planet where Little prince could live :)
  - M_Grey 10y ago
    I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who's mind went to Saint-Exupery!
  - loader 10y ago
    If you've got anything Oculus compatible you should check out The Rose and I, I'm guessing it's a Little Prince inspired scene. https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/980646215356452/ https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/980646215356452/
- 1ris 10y ago
  It's a household asteroid. Nothing unusual.
  - jgalt212 10y ago
    I agree. Where do they draw the line at dwarf planet and asteroid and/or comet? The thing is so far away. Are they able to confirm it's not just a chunk of ice, and therefore comet in a nearly circular (for a comet) orbit?
    - mcbits 10y ago
      I believe the threshold is whether it's large enough to have collapsed into a spheroid. Vesta is about the same size as they're estimating, and it's still too lumpy.
LyalinDotCom 10y ago
If there is one thing that inspires me in this life, it's news like this.
caf 10y ago
I guess this is why my Astrology charts have been wrong all this time!
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
1ris 10y ago
Articles like this pop out often and they do not make sense. There are constantly news about "New Dwarf Planets" and they are almost all wrong. First of all, the definition of "dwarf planets" does not make any sense. It was introduced because of the historic mistake to classify Pluto as a planet and americans being emotional about correcting that. The definition is "a dwarf planet is asteroid the IAU considers to be popular enough". Right now there are five objects that fullfill these criteria: Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea. This new found is obviously not in this list, just like hundreds of other objects that are like other so called "dwarf planets". The correct headline is: "New asteroid found". Sounds way less spectacular. But the truth is there are not only five know objects like this, but way, way more.
- restalis 10y ago
  Quoting from Wikipedia¹: "[asteroid and planetoid terms have been applied to] any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disc of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet", which means we don't quite know yet if it's an asteroid/planetoid or a dwarf planet. You may be right about the introduction of "dwarf planet" having something to do with Americans being emotional about Pluto, but the diversification of terms coming as a result of increased amount of knowledge in a domain is something natural. ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid
  - 1ris 10y ago
    No, we know for sure it's not a draw planet because it's not in the IUA's list of dwarf planets. Just like literally hundreds of objects that have dwarf planet properties, but are not as popular. And I'm not against diversification of terms at all. It's just that draw planet seems to be a quite arbitrary term used for arbitrary objects.
    - noselasd 10y ago
      Which are these hundreds of objects are you referring to ? It seems to me most of the currently known larger objects arn't in hydrostatic equilibrium, and thus not qualified to be called a dwarf planet.
peter303 10y ago
Hint of Planet X, something much larger than Pluto in the Kuiper belt, approaching the size of Earth. The evidence are several Kuiper objects with aligned, very eccentric orbits. If Planet X is in the outer range of its orbit, it may be too faint to seen with current telescopes.
toxican 10y ago
I'm sure one day we'll be able to discuss Dwarf Planets without getting weepy eyed for Pluto, right?
jason_slack 10y ago
Can someone explain how we find planets like this? New advancements in telescopes? I also recently read that Hubble has found 10 times more galaxies than expected. How does this happen? Any reading material on how these discoveries are made?

94 points by daegloe 10y ago

bobbles 10y ago

It would be great if they went into more detail on how the 'spot the difference' system works

1024core 10y ago

Is the image data publicly available?

japaget 10y ago
Yes, see here:http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gerdes/2014_UZ224.html http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gerdes/2014_UZ224.html
- 1024core 10y ago
  I just see a couple of samples there. I'd like to know if the images collected by the telescope are publicly available in the original format.

M_Grey 10y ago

330 miles... that seems so small, and it's so far away. It would be a truly haunting experience to stand on that surface and look at the faint pinprick of Sol.

ssijak 10y ago
A little bit smaller and it would be a dwarf planet where Little prince could live :)
- M_Grey 10y ago
  I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who's mind went to Saint-Exupery!
- loader 10y ago
  If you've got anything Oculus compatible you should check out The Rose and I, I'm guessing it's a Little Prince inspired scene. https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/980646215356452/ https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/980646215356452/
1ris 10y ago
It's a household asteroid. Nothing unusual.
- jgalt212 10y ago
  I agree. Where do they draw the line at dwarf planet and asteroid and/or comet? The thing is so far away. Are they able to confirm it's not just a chunk of ice, and therefore comet in a nearly circular (for a comet) orbit?
  - mcbits 10y ago
    I believe the threshold is whether it's large enough to have collapsed into a spheroid. Vesta is about the same size as they're estimating, and it's still too lumpy.

LyalinDotCom 10y ago

If there is one thing that inspires me in this life, it's news like this.

caf 10y ago

I guess this is why my Astrology charts have been wrong all this time!

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

1ris 10y ago

Articles like this pop out often and they do not make sense. There are constantly news about "New Dwarf Planets" and they are almost all wrong. First of all, the definition of "dwarf planets" does not make any sense. It was introduced because of the historic mistake to classify Pluto as a planet and americans being emotional about correcting that. The definition is "a dwarf planet is asteroid the IAU considers to be popular enough". Right now there are five objects that fullfill these criteria: Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea. This new found is obviously not in this list, just like hundreds of other objects that are like other so called "dwarf planets". The correct headline is: "New asteroid found". Sounds way less spectacular. But the truth is there are not only five know objects like this, but way, way more.

restalis 10y ago
Quoting from Wikipedia¹: "[asteroid and planetoid terms have been applied to] any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disc of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet", which means we don't quite know yet if it's an asteroid/planetoid or a dwarf planet. You may be right about the introduction of "dwarf planet" having something to do with Americans being emotional about Pluto, but the diversification of terms coming as a result of increased amount of knowledge in a domain is something natural. ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid
- 1ris 10y ago
  No, we know for sure it's not a draw planet because it's not in the IUA's list of dwarf planets. Just like literally hundreds of objects that have dwarf planet properties, but are not as popular. And I'm not against diversification of terms at all. It's just that draw planet seems to be a quite arbitrary term used for arbitrary objects.
  - noselasd 10y ago
    Which are these hundreds of objects are you referring to ? It seems to me most of the currently known larger objects arn't in hydrostatic equilibrium, and thus not qualified to be called a dwarf planet.

peter303 10y ago

Hint of Planet X, something much larger than Pluto in the Kuiper belt, approaching the size of Earth. The evidence are several Kuiper objects with aligned, very eccentric orbits. If Planet X is in the outer range of its orbit, it may be too faint to seen with current telescopes.

toxican 10y ago

I'm sure one day we'll be able to discuss Dwarf Planets without getting weepy eyed for Pluto, right?

jason_slack 10y ago

Can someone explain how we find planets like this? New advancements in telescopes? I also recently read that Hubble has found 10 times more galaxies than expected. How does this happen? Any reading material on how these discoveries are made?