quaoar
:: a new world in
the solar system NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has measured the largest object in the
solar system ever seen since the discovery of Pluto 72 years ago. Approximately half the size
of Pluto, the icy world 2002 LM60, dubbed "Quaoar" (pronounced kwa-whar) by its discoverers,
is the farthest object in the solar system ever to be resolved by a telescope.
This finding yields important new insights into the origin and dynamics of the planets, and
the mysterious population of bodies dwelling in the solar system's final frontier: the elusive,
icy Kuiper belt beyond Neptune. Like Pluto, Quaoar dwells in the Kuiper belt, an icy debris field
of comet-like bodies extending 7 billion miles beyond Neptune's orbit. Over the past decade more
than 500 icy worlds have been found in the Kuiper belt. Quaoar's 'icy dwarf' cousin, Pluto, was
discovered in 1930 in the course of a 15-year search for trans-Neptunian planets. It wasn't realized
until much later that Pluto actually was the largest of the known Kuiper belt objects. The Kuiper
belt wasn't theorized until 1950, after comet orbits provided telltale evidence of a vast nesting
ground for comets just beyond Neptune. The first recognized Kuiper belt objects were not discovered
until the early 1990s. >from *Hubble
Spots an Icy World Far Beyond Pluto*, october 7, 2002
related context
> kuiper belt
> pluto.
news horizons mission
> pluto-kuiper belt
mission. november 19, 2001
> pluto's
identity crisis by robert naeye. summer, 2001
> cruithne,
earth's second moon
> 100 th extra-solar
planet. september 23, 2002
|
