Dwarf planet discovered at solar system’s edge June 27, 2014
Posted by Al Philipson in Science and Science Fiction news.Tags: Kuiper Belt, new planet, planet, Pluto, Sedna, trans-Neptunian, VP113
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It is named 2012 VP113 and is at 83 AU.
But even farther out is another dwarf planet Eris. “Eris is bigger than Pluto, and has a satellite called Dysnomia.
A new exciting find from the far reaches of our solar system: Astronomers have discovered a dwarf planet that’s even farther away than Pluto — so far, in fact, that its orbit reaches into a new edge of the solar system.
The dwarf planet’s current name is 2012 VP113, and it is located in a “wasteland or badland of the solar system,” said astronomer Chad Trujillo, head of adaptive optics at Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and co-discoverer of this object. His study was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. (more…)