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I know very little about the subject, but does this mean that there are planet-sized objects in orbit around the sun of which we are unaware of?
by mekkkkkk 5y ago
I know very little about the subject, but does this mean that there are planet-sized objects in orbit around the sun of which we are unaware of?
- CapitalistCartr 5y agoThere definitely are. A major reason for "demoting" Pluto was there are more such Pluto-scale planets in the Kuiper belt. Maybe we will find one bigger than Pluto.
- mekkkkkk 5y agoThanks! That's wild to me. All talk about exoplanets and other pop-sci headlines makes you think we would have our own backyard figured out. Then again, I suppose the vastness of space is vast even within our solar system.
- joeyh 5y agoBig backyard.. The Oort cloud extends a sizable fraction of the distance to Alpha Centari. No spacecraft has reached it and very little is known. It's remarkable that this dwarf planet's orbit reaches it. Its aphelion is 54,600 AU, or 0.86 light years!