Astronomy / Space Dwarf Planet in Solar System Discovered

Dejay

Dejay
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.
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Pluuuuutooooooooooo!
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
This is exactly the reason Pluto was disqualified - there are too much of its tiny ilk out there, and we'll be discovering many more in future years.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Nibiru!

Seriously though, cool news. More resources for humanity if we ever get the balls to leave our planet. If nothing else it's great fodder for more bad SciFi.
 

Dejay

Dejay
Well if it's 10 times the size of earth we'll likely never get anything of that monster lol. Gravity would be far too high!
 

Pembs

Pembs
What makes a dwarf planet a dwarf planet and not an asteroid? Don't they both orbit the sun? Is it based on size?
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
Pembs said:
What makes a dwarf planet a dwarf planet and not an asteroid? Don't they both orbit the sun? Is it based on size?
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Size matters :).

A dwarf planet is a planetary-mass object that is neither a planet nor a satellite. More explicitly, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defines a dwarf planet as a celestial body in direct orbit of the Sun[1] that is massive enough for its shape to be controlled by gravitation, but that unlike a planet has not cleared its orbital region of other objects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet
 

Beachlight7

Beachlight7
In which case I take it that means it's possible for this dwarf planet to hit another dwarf planet sending one on a direct path to earth. Or more nicely stun against the Moon to become the new Moon, and send our old moon to Mars on a collision course to give it more mass and generate some big heat in the explosion. Making it suitable for holding an atmosphere.
Now i'm not saying it's likely..
 
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