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Awoo.

Looks like there's a Planet X After all.


AzureHedgehog

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Well that doesn't mean that aliens are going to attack us any time soon. We're in 2014 now, conspiracy theorists.

 

discovery-images-2012-vp113.jpg?13958066 PinExt.png The discovery images of 2012 VP113, which has the most distant orbit known in our Solar System. Three images of the night sky, each taken about 2 hours apart, were combined into one. The first image was artificially colored red, second green and third blue. 2012 VP113 moved between each image as seen by the red, green and blue dots. The background stars and galaxies did not move and thus their red, green and blue images combine to show up as white sources.
Credit: Scott S. Sheppard: Carnegie Institution for Science

Astronomers have found a new dwarf planet far beyond Pluto's orbit, suggesting that this distant realm contains millions of undiscovered objects — including, perhaps, a world larger than Earth.

The newfound celestial body, called 2012 VP113, joins the dwarf planet Sedna as a confirmed resident of a far-flung and largely unexplored region scientists call the "inner Oort Cloud." Further, 2012 VP113 and Sedna may have been pulled into their long, looping orbits by a big planet lurking unseen in these frigid depths.

"These two objects are just the tip of the iceberg," study co-author Chadwick Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, told Space.com. "They exist in a part of the solar system that we used to think was pretty devoid of matter. It just goes to show how little we actually know about the solar system." [New Dwarf Planet Photos: Images of 2012 VP113]

 

 

[reliable] Source: http://www.space.com/25218-dwarf-planet-discovery-solar-system-edge.html?cmpid=514630_20140326_20759344

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