Defining Planets

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The artists rendition shows Sedna in relation to other bodies in the solar system including Earth and its Moon Pluto and Quaoar a planetoid beyond Pluto that was the largest known object beyond Pluto. Image courtesy: NASAJPL-Caltech
The artist's rendition shows "Sedna" in relation to other bodies in the solar system, including Earth and its Moon; Pluto; and Quaoar, a planetoid beyond Pluto that was the largest known object beyond Pluto. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In 2005, Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology and his team discovered a large body in the outer solar system. It was not the first distant object that had been found in the Kuiper Belt -- the region is composed of hundreds of icy objects. But it was the largest known Kuiper Belt object, just beating out Pluto in terms of size, and so their discovery was heralded as "the tenth planet."


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All News summaries for February 28, 2007

Paying to save tropical forests could be a way to reduce global carbon emissions

7 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
Wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for the next 25 years, new research suggests.

Phoenix Completes Longest Work Shift

9 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- Phoenix early Tuesday finished its longest work shift of the mission. The lander stayed awake for 33 hours, completing tasks that included rasping and scraping by the robotic arm, in addition ...

Ancient Galactic Magnetic Fields Stronger than Expected

9 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- Mining the far reaches of the universe for clues about its past, a team of scientists including Philipp Kronberg of Los Alamos National Laboratory has proposed that magnetic fields of ancient galaxies like ...

Polarizing filter allows astronomers to see disks surrounding black holes

10 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, a team of international researchers has found a way to view the accretion disks surrounding black holes and verify that their true electromagnetic spectra match what astronomers ...

Category 2 Hurricane Dolly Crosses South Padre Island, Texas

10 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
At 12:00 p.m. CDT (1:00 p.m. EDT) Dolly's eye was located near latitude 26.2 north and longitude 97.0 west or about 35 miles northeast of Brownsville, Texas, and she was crossing South Padre Island.

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