![[Image: 983aa141c0944c83b82b267213f85af4.png]](http://image.prntscr.com/image/983aa141c0944c83b82b267213f85af4.png)
An artist's concept of a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO). A newly discovered object (2014 UZ224) located beyond Pluto's orbit may be large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet.
Aah yes, another discovery....
Quote:A new face has been added to the solar system's family portrait: Scientists have discovered a new dwarf planet looping around the sun in the region beyond Pluto.
The dwarf planet, called 2014 UZ224, measures about 330 miles (530 kilometers) across and is located about 8.5 billion miles (13.7 billion km) from the sun, NPR reported today (Oct. 11).
For comparison, Pluto's largest moon, Charon, is about 750 miles (1,200 km) in diameter, and reaches a maximum distance of about 4.5 billion miles (7.3 billion km) from the sun
A year on 2014 UZ224 (the time it takes the dwarf planet to orbit the sun) is about 1,100 Earth years. One Pluto year, for c is about 248 Earth years.
The new object was also confirmed by the Minor Planet Center.
Space.com
Wow, a year there would be about 1,100 yrs. our time.
Kinda hard to compute that. ha.
(just teasing)
Anyhow, the planet was discovered apparently by using an instrument called 'Dark Energy Camera'.
Quote:David Gerdes, a professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan, told NPR that the new dwarf planet was discovered using an instrument called the Dark Energy Camera (DECam).
The universe is not only expanding but accelerating in that expansion, and "dark energy" is the name scientists have given the mechanism powering that expansion. The DECam was built to observe the movement of galaxies and supernovas (exploding stars) as they move away from the Earth. The goal is to provide more clues that will help reveal what dark energy actually is or where it comes from.
A project called the Dark Energy Survey is using observations from the DECam to create a map of the universe that provides information relevant to the study of dark energy. The DES maps have already been used to study dark matter (which makes up about eighty percent of all the mass in the universe but whose exact nature is still a mystery) and to find previously unidentified objects.
There was even a mention about PLANET 9:
Quote:The region beyond Neptune's orbit is known as the Kuiper Belt, a disk that is believed to contain thousands of icy, rocky bodies. Beyond that is a region known as the Oort Cloud — a sphere of icy, rocky bodies that surrounds the rest of the solar system. Most comets originate in the Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud, but their wide orbits bring them close to the sun.
While the outer regions of the solar system are thought to be made up mostly of objects smaller than Pluto, there may be another planet nearly the size of Neptune lurking in this outer territory. Recent research has shown that the movement of known bodies in the outer solar system may point to the existence of this ninth planet (which scientists have dubbed Planet Nine); that research has prompted efforts to spot the new planet with telescopes.
Here's another thread on Planet 9, 'Scientists just found more evidence that Planet 9 exists'
