Dwarf planet discovery hints at a hidden Super Earth in solar system

[Sunny-side-up]

Just heard this news off the Sky at Night BBC programe, very interesting!



Dwarf planet discovery hints at a hidden Super Earth in solar system

Astronomers have increased the size of the observable solar system after spotting a 450-km wide object orbiting the sun.
The lump of ice and rock circles the sun at a greater distance than any known object, and never gets closer than 12bn kilometres – 80 times the distance from Earth to the sun.
If its size is confirmed it could qualify as a dwarf planet in the same category as Pluto. Researchers said the discovery proves the existence of the inner Oort cloud, a region of icy bodies that lies far beyond the orbit of Neptune – which at 4.5bn kilometres from the sun is the most remote planet in the solar system.


http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/26/dwarf-planet-super-earth-solar-system-2012-vp113

[Cidersomerset]

I posted this last week , but have not found any more info........


http://static1.i4u.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/main_image_fullwidth/images/2014/03/ncforbesauto2902cab983e6bc5e79ed9f25cdfce4590.jpg

http://www.i4u.com/2014/03/68642/pink-dwarf-planet-found-beyond-pluto#xUwhHmPKb5EwRMdg.99

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Distant new world may point to undiscovered planets in solar system

I still going thru last weeks Bob and Ion show and they were talking about a
new planet found in the outer solar system, which they said had huminoids
on it. Anyway looked up story and this is what they are referring .....

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A planet past Pluto? Astronomers redefine the solar system's edge

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/03/27/planet-past-pluto-new-discovery-redefines-solar-system-edge/


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http://static.guim.co.uk/static/820f21b1603ec24545b3382843b151a2b19b6db8/common/images/logos/the-guardian/news.gif


Distant new world may point to undiscovered planets in solar system


Today’s discovery of dwarf planet 2012 VP113 suggests that many planet-sized
worlds lurk undetected beyond the orbit of Pluto, maybe even a giant ‘Super Earth’

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/3/26/1395858171862/7cc1ded5-72e6-4087-8cf4-e59df4f42727-460x276.jpeg


The newly discovery dwarf planet shows up as red-green-blue coloured dots. Three
images, each taken about two hours apart, were combined into one. The orbit of
this world may be hinting that a planet far larger than Earth also lurks in the outer
solar systemThe newly discovery dwarf planet shows up as red-green-blue coloured
dots. Three images, each taken about two hours apart, were combined into one.
The orbit of this world may be hinting that a planet far larger than Earth also lurks
in the outer solar system Photograph: Scott S Sheppard/Carnegie Institution for Science


We learned today that our solar system is larger than we had previously known. A
newly discovered, extremely distant dwarf planet with the tentative name of 2012
VP113 was announced. It appears as nothing more than a dot on images but we
know a few things about it.

For a start, it is approximately 450km across, which is pretty small by planetary
standards and means that it is almost certainly an irregular lump of rock and ice
rather than a spherical "world".

We know also that it never comes closer than 80 times the distance of the Earth to
the sun. And it’s pink. Honestly, it is.All in all, it’s a rather exotic place. Yet the
most important part of the research is that this discovery could be the tip of a
celestial iceberg. Before today’s announcement only one other celestial object, the
dwarf planet Sedna, was known to exist so far from the sun.Scott Sheppard at the
Carnegie Institution of Washington and Chadwick Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory
are responsible for the new discovery. Based upon the amount of sky they had to
search before uncovering 2012 VP113, they estimate that there could be
approximately 900 other objects with diameters of 1,000km or more out there.

If true, then we have not simply discovered a new dwarf planet, we have begun to
redefine the architecture of the solar system.

There are millions of asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter but only one,
Ceres, is about 1,000km across. For comparison, Mercury, the smallest planet, is
4,879km across, and Earth is 12,742km. The astronomers speculated that some of
these far-distant worlds could be larger than Mars (6,779km) or even Earth.

Almost a decade ago, I discovered that theoreticians were all but predicting a
second solar system’s worth of planets at extreme distances from the sun. They
came to this conclusion because of computer simulations of planetary formation.
They were investigating the prevailing view that 4.6bn years ago, a plethora of
large asteroids collided repeatedly to build the planets of today.


However, the simulations showed that not every close encounter ended in collision.
Sometimes planets would experience a near-miss. In these, the smaller of the two
could be gravitationally slung out of the simulated solar system. Because the
computers of the time only had limited power, the astronomers couldn’t track their
eventual whereabouts.


It seemed entirely reasonable to suppose that some of those errant worlds would
have been thrown clear to wander interstellar space. Others will have been placed
at extreme distance, where they will be orbiting even today, having been unable to
completely break free of the sun’s gravitational grip.


Today’s announcement backs up this view, and promises more for the future.


The next generation of survey telescopes, such as the Large Synoptic Survey
telescope, should be powerful enough to see some of these distant worlds. It may
also see something even larger, according to Sheppard and Trujillo.

In the most speculative part of today’s announcement the astronomers noted that
2012 VP113 shares a similar inclination in its orbit to the previously discovered
Sedna,which Trujillo also had a hand in discovering, and which was originally
termed 2003 VB12. They suggest that a much larger planet’s gravity could be
corralling both objects.

They suggest that this as yet unseen gravitational sheep dog would be huge:
perhaps 10 times the mass of the Earth, and orbiting a few hundred times further
from the sun than our planet. Such ‘Super Earths’ are now routinely found around
other stars. To find one in our solar system would constitute as much of a shake up
as the discovery of Uranus, Neptune or Pluto did back in 1781, 1846, 1930 respectively.


But don't hold your breath. The evidence so far is weak. It could just be a
coincidence that the two planets share similar inclinations. As more distant dwarf
planets are found, a pattern in the orbits will become obvious if it is truly there.
And that will guide the search for any Super Earth that might exist around the sun.


Even if it is not there, a fascinating new window into our solar system is opening
before our eyes. These distant frozen worlds have the potential to tell us about the
ultra-violent birth of the solar system, when whole planets were colliding with one
another.These distant worlds are the lucky ones. They are the survivors. And all
survivors have stories to tell.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/2014/mar/26/planets-solar-system-2012-vp113-dwarf-planet-super-earth


from thread....

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?70043-Distant-new-world-may-point-to-undiscovered-planets-in-solar-system&p=817058#post817058

[ghostrider]

wait till they discover the sun has a twin , and our universe has a twin ...