Another companion Pluto – rmf24.pl

Pluto is bigger company than we thought. Class of dwarf planets, to which he belongs, is officially a new representative. She found him an international group of astronomers, uses the telescope Canada-France-Hawaii (CFHT), located near the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The object temporarily named 2015 RR245 probably has a diameter of about 700 kilometers and circulates in the area of ​​the so-called Kuiper Belt, far beyond the orbit of Neptune.

         

                              Probable orbit RR245 against other Kuiper belt objects
                                      / Alex Parker ossos team / press materials
                                     

     

Ice objects that are there are the remains of the early period of the formation of the planets. Their research helps to understand how the solar system was created – says co-author of the discovery of Dr. Michele Bannister from the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Most of them are unfortunately objects small and hard to see, it is very exciting to find a previously unknown object, so large and bright that it can thoroughly investigate – translators.

For the first time noted RR245 in February this year. She was in the pictures taken in September last year as part of an international program ossos (Outer Solar System Origins Survey). A bright spot in the images move so slowly that the object had to be twice farther from the Sun than Neptune – adds Bannister. Subsequent observations have shown that the orbit reaches up to 120 times farther from the Sun than the Earth’s orbit. The exact size will require verification. The property may be small and very bright, or larger and darker – says Bannister.

Most similar to RR245 objects were probably destroyed in the turbulent times of the Solar System when planets occupy the current orbit. RR245 is – believed to be – one of the few that remained, just like Pluto or Eris.

Past observations show that after hundreds of years spent more than 12 billion kilometers from the Sun RR245 coming to our star to about 2,096 years to find the closest to the Sun, at a distance of about five billion kilometers. It would still be about 34 times farther from the Sun than is Earth. The period of circulation of the entire orbit goes back about 700 years.

Precise data on both the size and orbit of the new dwarf planet will be known only after several years of observation. It was then that the International Astronomical Union will consider giving her name. Ossos team will have the right to submit your proposal. In the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto and Eris, the dwarf planets believed to still Haumea and Makemake. There are also other objects which are likely to fulfill imposed on dwarf planets conditions. It Sedna, Quaoar and object named 2007 OR10.