2008 Woodie Awards
New Moon Discovered Orbiting 10th Planet
Rochelle Siegel
Issue date: 10/14/05 Section: Life & Times
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While in Hawaii, last month, and using a 10-meter telescope at the W.M Keck Observatory, astronomers discovered a new planet, the tenth planet in our solar system. Those same astronomers also discovered that this new planet has a moon moving along side it. The planet has been nicknamed Xena and its moon has been named Gabrielle.
Xena, known formally as 2003 UB313, is nicknamed after the warrior princess of television series and Gabrielle orbit the sun out beyond Pluto in a band known as the Kuiper Belt, a region of comets, asteroids and other space rocks.
The fact that a moon was discovered is important in determining what the mass of the new planet consists of and also determining if it is actually a planet. The discovery of the moon Gabrielle means that Xena has at least enough mass to keep a satellite. The faster a moon travels around a planet, the more massive a planet usually is. Gabrielle is estimated to orbit very close to Xena, making its full course around about fourteen days.
This new moon that was discovered orbiting this new planet is in fact the farthest-known object in the solar system. It is about nine billion miles away from the sun, which is about three times Pluto's current distance from the sun. Astronomers believe that the tenth planet is completely frozen, covered with methane ice, and "it's definitely bigger than Pluto," said Mike Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech. Mike Brown has estimated that the new planet is about 2,100 miles wide, about one and a half times the diameter of Pluto. Diameter is detected by recording heat in the form of infrared light. Due to the fact that no heat from infrared light was able to be detected from this new object scientist believe it is less than twice the size of Pluto. Scientists are able to estimate the new objects size by its brightness and distance.
Seventy-five years ago Pluto was discovered and that was the last time something so large has been found in our solar system. The possible tenth planet moves in a very strange obit, tilted 45 degrees about the orbital plane of others and that is one reason it took so long for astronomers to discover it, because they were not looking in that area. It takes 560 Earth years for Xena to complete one trip around the Sun, whereas it takes Pluto only 250 earth years.
Xena, known formally as 2003 UB313, is nicknamed after the warrior princess of television series and Gabrielle orbit the sun out beyond Pluto in a band known as the Kuiper Belt, a region of comets, asteroids and other space rocks.
The fact that a moon was discovered is important in determining what the mass of the new planet consists of and also determining if it is actually a planet. The discovery of the moon Gabrielle means that Xena has at least enough mass to keep a satellite. The faster a moon travels around a planet, the more massive a planet usually is. Gabrielle is estimated to orbit very close to Xena, making its full course around about fourteen days.
This new moon that was discovered orbiting this new planet is in fact the farthest-known object in the solar system. It is about nine billion miles away from the sun, which is about three times Pluto's current distance from the sun. Astronomers believe that the tenth planet is completely frozen, covered with methane ice, and "it's definitely bigger than Pluto," said Mike Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech. Mike Brown has estimated that the new planet is about 2,100 miles wide, about one and a half times the diameter of Pluto. Diameter is detected by recording heat in the form of infrared light. Due to the fact that no heat from infrared light was able to be detected from this new object scientist believe it is less than twice the size of Pluto. Scientists are able to estimate the new objects size by its brightness and distance.
Seventy-five years ago Pluto was discovered and that was the last time something so large has been found in our solar system. The possible tenth planet moves in a very strange obit, tilted 45 degrees about the orbital plane of others and that is one reason it took so long for astronomers to discover it, because they were not looking in that area. It takes 560 Earth years for Xena to complete one trip around the Sun, whereas it takes Pluto only 250 earth years.