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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 5, 1997)
Texas-sized mini-planet found floating in outer solar system ■ DISCOVERY: Astronomers believe the object is just one of many small planets in the farthest reaches of the solar system By Matt Crenson The Associated Press NEW YORK — Astronomers have found an icy mini-planet that orbits the sun well beyond Pluto, providing evidence that the solar system extends much farther than was once thought. The little planet is about 300 miles across, which gives it a surface area comparable to Texas. It is the brightest solar system object to be found beyond Neptune since the dis covery of Pluto’s moon Charon in 1978. At its most distant, it wanders three times farther from the sun than Pluto, tracing a looping, oblong path into an astronomical terra incognita. “It’s the first object in a sort of no man’s land, an area we never thought we could get a glimpse of with our current technology,” said Jane Luu, an astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. And it’s probably not alone. Theoretical calculations suggest that there are millions of small, icy solar system objects well be yond the outermost planets. Astronomers consider their new discov ery an extension of the Kuiper Belt, a collec tion of small, icy bodies that circle the sun beyond the orbit of Neptune. About 40 Kuiper Belt objects have been discovered since 1992. Before then, the only known Kuiper belt objects were the planet Pluto, discovered in 1930, and Charon. Luu discovered the new object, known as 1996TL66, with colleagues from Harvard, the University of Hawaii and the University of Arizona, as well as an amateur as tronomer based in Cloudcroft, N.M. They described the find in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. “I wouldn’t call this a major planet,” said Brian Marsden, a Harvard astronomer and contributor to the Nature paper. “But then I tend not to call Pluto a major planet.” In fact, 1996TL66 is considered too minor to be named for a Roman god, like the other planets. Astronomers surmise that it is composed of the same material as other outer solar sys tem objects — water, carbon dioxide, methane and other materials — all frozen solid. The astronomers found 1996TL66 with a University of Hawaii telescope as the object passed among the outer planets last Octo ber. They and others followed it for several months with telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona and New Mexico. The object’s motion over the last few months shows that it follows a lopsided or bit unlike that of any other Kuiper belt ob ject. It swings through the neighborhood of the outermost planets every 800 years, then loops far out into space before making its next pass. Astronomers have never seen such a thing. “It just reminds us that we really don’t know what the outer solar system holds,” Luu said. Some researchers had an inkling that the object would be out there, however. Hal Levison, a scientist at the Southwest Re search Institute in Boulder, Colo., has been telling his colleagues for the past year that objects such as 1996TL66 ought to exist. The research behind that prediction, con- ■ ducted with Martin Duncan of Queen’s Uni versity in Canada, is scheduled for publica tion in a future issue of the journal Science. KEEP THE B1UI You can still register for University of Oregon Summer Session classes. Summer Duck Call's ready and waiting. Pick up your free summer bulletin then pick up the phone. Bulletins with schedule of classes are available in 333 Oregon Hall and at the UO Bookstore. OREG UNIVERSITY OF OREGON 1997 SUMMER SESSION A REMINDER Spring term is almost over, so don’t forget to fill your prescriptions. Prescriptions need to be filled or refilled before Friday, June 13. Summer Hours • 8:00 A.M.-4:30 P.M. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday • 9:00 A.M.-4:30 P.M. Tuesday CLOSED WEEKENDS HEALTH CENTER 13TH & AGATE • 346-2770 http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/UOSHC/ Ho MATTER HOW FAR YOU TRAVEL, YOU’RE ALWAYS CLOSE TO CAMPUS. Oregon daily emerald tT >>-"> now on the world wide wefcS ; ^ 1*4<AsbnaJUa*QJnw,h io c!o you ii he r stucgr Tor- choice 19-days Reefs & Rainforests Vacation (land only) * * n c I u d i n q ► 2 days of 4-wheel drive adventure C 9C 5 day Rainforest Adventure **?’ eluding w % i n f" a stay on Fltzroy Island, r off the Great Barrier Reef. 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