usatoday24
The International Astronomical Union has added a new celestial body to its Minor planet catalog: The Transneptunian object 2017 of201.
The solar system has a new member. 2017 of201 has been officially recognized as a minor planet, but has many ballots to end also cataloged as a dwarf planet. This icy world, which orbits much beyond Neptune, in the dark depths of the solar system, was in file data since 2011, but 19 exhibitions were needed over seven years to be able to analyze and classify it as appropriate.
What makes this transneptunian object a fascinating world are two things: its incredibly extensive orbit and its considerable size. The new minor planet takes approximately 25,000 years to take a single round to the sun.
A distant and not so dwarf planet. At its closest point to our star (the perihelium of its orbit), it approaches about 44.9 astronomical units, a distance similar to that of Pluto. But at its furthest point (its apelium) it ventures to amazing 1,600 UA. To get an idea, Neptune, the planet known more distant to the sun, orbits about 30 UA of our star.
The estimates of astronomer Sihao Cheng and his team of Advanced Studies Institute They suggest that 2017 of201 has a diameter of about 700 kilometers. This would place it in the same league as The Dwarf Planet Ceresthe largest object of the asteroid belt (with about 952 km in diameter). In fact, if we judge it for the light that reflects your body, it is the second largest object known In such a wide orbit and eccentric.
What if there were others like him? The existence of 2017 of201 suggests that the region of the solar system beyond the Kuiper belt, which was thought relatively empty, I might not be so much. The transneptunian object is currently 90.5, from us.
Since it is only detectable for approximately 0.5% of its orbital time, when it is close to its perihelium, there could be hundreds of similar objects, with orbits and similar sizes, waiting to be discovered. This hidden population could add a total mass close to 1% of the dough of the earth, they estimate Cheng and its team.
It takes us away from the planet nine. Many extreme transneptunian objects tend to coincide in their perihelium lengths, a phenomenon that some astronomers want to attribute to the gravitational influence of A mass planet not yet discovered: The planet nine.
However, the 2017 of201 perihelium length is 306 degrees, which is significantly diverted from the 60 degree group observed in other objects. This orbital peculiarity Challenge the planet models nine. If the planet nine would exist, it would make 2017 of201 expelled from the solar system in relatively short time scales, of hundreds of millions of years, according to the study of IAS.
You just lack a name. Already officially member of the Solar System, 2017 of201 is pending to receive a name with more hook. However, its discovery is already providing clues about the origins of the solar system and the dynamics of its most remote confines.
What most excites the scientific community is that its discovery was possible thanks to open data, publicly available through the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (Decals) project of the Víctor M. Blanco telescope and the Canada-France-French telescope (CFHT).
Image | NASA/JPL-CALTECH, SIHAO CHENG et al.
In Xataka | Planet’s definition is wrong, and Pluto is the great victim of that chaos
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings