Another major discovery: Solar System's Edge Redefined

reply to post by wildespace


Cool find
Wiki says it has a magnitude of 4.1, can I see that?
Is there any coordinates or somewhere to look to see it.
From the orit diagram looks like it is moving away from us.

ZeussusZ
reply to post by wildespace

 

Cool find
Wiki says it has a magnitude of 4.1, can I see that?
Is there any coordinates or somewhere to look to see it.
From the orit diagram looks like it is moving away from us.

4.1 is its absolute magnitude, meaning how bright it would appear from 1 AU both from the Sun and the observer. Given the enormous actual distance of this object from the Earth and the Sun, its apparent magnitude is much, much lower, currently at around 23.4. That's fainter than Pluto's own moons, and visible only in large observatory telescopes that are several meters in diameter.

Widespace,

Do the two orbital diagrams that you have posted have the same orientation? If so, then the nodal points of both objects are remarkably similar......

Ooooh interesting. I'll stay tuned.

I'm a noob when it comes to all the technical stuff. I'll just read and nod and pretend i'm one of you.

kwakakev
Why is this planet / object called 2012 VP113 when it is 2014? Just who has been sitting on this information for two years and why?

They didn't mention it in 2012, because they didn't want to fuel all the Planet X/Nibiru hysteria any further...

BUT LOW AND BEHOLD, ALL ALONG...

You wait for one for ages, and then three turn up together! [old British joke about buses]

Rather than create a new thread about this, I'll chuck it in here since it is closely related:

Hot on the tail of "2012 VP113", two new dwarf planets have been recently discovered - 2013 FY27, anounced on March 31st, and 2013 FZ27, anounced on April 2nd.

2013 FY27 belongs to the scattered disc (like Eris). It's approximately 850 km in diameter, and gets as far from the Sun as 80 AU. Planetary Society blog post about this object: www.planetary.org...

2013 FZ27 is about 500 km in diameter, and has a similar orbit as the other object.

Both objects were discovered by Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, in the same survey that yielded VP113.