Scientists have found a new world orbiting the solar system
 

It's another world ... but is it our 10th planet?

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...E29098,00.html

SCIENTISTS have found a new world orbiting the solar system ? more than 3 billion kilometres further away from the Sun than Pluto and 40 years away from Earth in a space shuttle.

NASA is expected to announce today the discovery of the space object, which some experts believe could be a new planet.

It is provisionally known as Sedna, after the Inuit goddess of the sea.

The discovery of Sedna ? 10 billion kilometres from Earth ? is a testament to the new generation of high-powered telescopes.

Measurements suggest Sedna's diameter is almost 2000km ? the biggest find in the solar system since Pluto was discovered 74 years ago. It is believed to be made of ice and rock, and is slightly smaller than Pluto.

The find will reignite the debate over what constitutes a planet. Some scientists claim even Pluto is too small to count as one.

According to astronomer Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, who discovered Sedna, there could be many other new worlds orbiting the Sun and waiting to be discovered.

"Sedna is very big, and much further out than previous discoveries," he said. "I'm pretty sure there are other large bodies up there too."

But physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies, of Sydney's Macquarie University, said it was folly to describe Sedna as a planet. "It's fun, it's exciting, but let's keep it in proportion," Professor Davies said yesterday.

He said scientists had known for "a decade or so the solar system does not come to an abrupt halt" and there were a number of "planetessimals" or little planets, like Sedna.

Cool stuff.

:thumbsup

planetessimals my word of the day

40 years .... searching for Sednians :Graucho

Several years ago didn't they find 2 more planets here? I'm thinking this was 1996 or 1997. I recall it being in the news back then.

Yeah that is neat.. Nasa posted some new hubble images last week that looked like art..

wild stuff.

interesting stuff... :thumbsup

I remember somthing like that

I remember that "discovery" too.

Hey you know what I always thought would be weird? 10 years from now they send a space shuttle to Sedna.
20 years into the trip they look out the window and see a shuttle passsing them at 2x their speed. Then the new shuttle is jetting along and are passed by a shuttle going 2x it's speed.

So by the time the first shuttle gets there, 2 others have landed and are 10 years into colonizing the planet.

Wouldn't that be weird? :)

fucking awesome :thumbsup

That's been around since 1999

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/467572.stm

They say that anything smaller then Pluto isn't a planet so I guess we still have to wait for planet number 10:(