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Die heutige Ausgabe von Nature enthält einen Artikel mit dem Titel
C. Trujillo and S. Sheppard, "A Sedna-like body with a perihelion of 80 astronomical units", Nature, March 27, 2014.
Dabei handelt es sich um ein vor gut einem Jahr entdecktes Objekt jenseits vom Kuiper Gürtel mit der Bezeichnung 2012 VP113, welches gewisse Ähnlichkeiten mit den Bahnparametern von 90377 Sedna aufweist.
NASA News - The solar system has a new most-distant family member.
Nature - Dwarf planet stretches Solar System's edge
The Solar System just got a lot more far-flung. Astronomers have discovered a probable dwarf planet that orbits the Sun far beyond Pluto.
Together with Sedna, a similar extreme object discovered a decade ago, the find is reshaping ideas about how the Solar System came to be. “It goes to show that there’s something we don’t know about our Solar System, and it’s something important,” says co-discoverer Chad Trujillo, an astronomer at Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii. “We’re starting to get a taste of what’s out beyond what we consider the edge.”
Trujillo and Sheppard estimate that there are hundreds more inner Oort objects waiting to be found. They are currently tracking six more candidates that could belong to extreme parts of the Solar System.
Sky & Telescope - New Object Offers Hint of "Planet X"
The discovery of 2012 VP113, a sizable object roughly twice Pluto's distance from the Sun, has dynamicists wondering whether a super-Earth-size perturber lies undiscovered even farther out.
What's got dynamicists buzzing about this new find is not so much its distance, but instead what it has in common with Sedna's orbit. Both have perihelia near the plane of the ecliptic. So do several other far-out objects, 12 in all, whose distance from the Sun averages at least 150 a.u.
This isn't due to some kind of observational bias, note Trujillo and Sheppard, and it's statistically unlikely to be mere coincidence.
Instead, the observers suggest, this might be the handiwork of a super-Earth-size planet roughly 250 a.u. from the Sun, in what's considered the inner Oort Cloud of comets. This rogue world would have enough mass to perturb objects like 2012 VP113 and Sedna inward.
Notably, Trujillo and Sheppard aren't saying this "Planet X" is the real deal. But their computer simulations suggest that it would indeed push objects into these otherwise unexplained orbits. "This is at the suggestive stage," Trujillo cautions. "There are many possible configurations of perturber(s) that could cause the effect."
......................... 9033 Sedna ......... 2012 VP113
... e .................. 0.8570 ................ 0.6937 ±0.0553
... a (AU) ........... 532 .................... 263 ±39
... q (AU) ........... 76.13 ................. 80.6 ±2.6
... i (deg) ........... 11.92861 ............ 24.02 ±0.02
... node (deg)...... 144.530 .............. 90.88 ±0.04
... peri (deg) ....... 311.19 ............... 294 ±12
... M (deg) .......... 358.19 ............... 2.9 ±0.8
... period (yr) ...... 12280 ±60 ......... 4274 ±950
Credit: JPL/NASA
C. Trujillo and S. Sheppard, "A Sedna-like body with a perihelion of 80 astronomical units", Nature, March 27, 2014.
Dabei handelt es sich um ein vor gut einem Jahr entdecktes Objekt jenseits vom Kuiper Gürtel mit der Bezeichnung 2012 VP113, welches gewisse Ähnlichkeiten mit den Bahnparametern von 90377 Sedna aufweist.
NASA News - The solar system has a new most-distant family member.
Nature - Dwarf planet stretches Solar System's edge
The Solar System just got a lot more far-flung. Astronomers have discovered a probable dwarf planet that orbits the Sun far beyond Pluto.
Together with Sedna, a similar extreme object discovered a decade ago, the find is reshaping ideas about how the Solar System came to be. “It goes to show that there’s something we don’t know about our Solar System, and it’s something important,” says co-discoverer Chad Trujillo, an astronomer at Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii. “We’re starting to get a taste of what’s out beyond what we consider the edge.”
Trujillo and Sheppard estimate that there are hundreds more inner Oort objects waiting to be found. They are currently tracking six more candidates that could belong to extreme parts of the Solar System.
Sky & Telescope - New Object Offers Hint of "Planet X"
The discovery of 2012 VP113, a sizable object roughly twice Pluto's distance from the Sun, has dynamicists wondering whether a super-Earth-size perturber lies undiscovered even farther out.
What's got dynamicists buzzing about this new find is not so much its distance, but instead what it has in common with Sedna's orbit. Both have perihelia near the plane of the ecliptic. So do several other far-out objects, 12 in all, whose distance from the Sun averages at least 150 a.u.
This isn't due to some kind of observational bias, note Trujillo and Sheppard, and it's statistically unlikely to be mere coincidence.
Instead, the observers suggest, this might be the handiwork of a super-Earth-size planet roughly 250 a.u. from the Sun, in what's considered the inner Oort Cloud of comets. This rogue world would have enough mass to perturb objects like 2012 VP113 and Sedna inward.
Notably, Trujillo and Sheppard aren't saying this "Planet X" is the real deal. But their computer simulations suggest that it would indeed push objects into these otherwise unexplained orbits. "This is at the suggestive stage," Trujillo cautions. "There are many possible configurations of perturber(s) that could cause the effect."
......................... 9033 Sedna ......... 2012 VP113
... e .................. 0.8570 ................ 0.6937 ±0.0553
... a (AU) ........... 532 .................... 263 ±39
... q (AU) ........... 76.13 ................. 80.6 ±2.6
... i (deg) ........... 11.92861 ............ 24.02 ±0.02
... node (deg)...... 144.530 .............. 90.88 ±0.04
... peri (deg) ....... 311.19 ............... 294 ±12
... M (deg) .......... 358.19 ............... 2.9 ±0.8
... period (yr) ...... 12280 ±60 ......... 4274 ±950
Credit: JPL/NASA
