Amiga.org
Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / Science and Technology => Topic started by: blobrana on December 14, 2005, 11:02:05 PM
-
Scientists have found a puzzling new object beyond the orbit of Pluto.
The new object, 2004 XR190, nicknamed "Buffy", has an almost circular orbit, which is tilted 47 degrees from most of the other bodies in our solar system.
It was thought that Neptune was the reason for scattering many other Kuiper Belt Objects into tilted paths. But the objects tend to show other signs of a past interaction with the giant planet, such as moving in elliptical paths and having one part of their orbit pass near Neptune's at 30 astronomical units from the Sun.
Buffy, however, follows a nearly circular path. And it is too distant to have come into direct contact with Neptune, travelling between 52 and 62 AU from the Sun. Its orbit is also too circular - and too small - to have been tilted by a passing star.
LINK; (http://www.geocities.com/goarana669/2004XR190.htm)
-
Darn, and there was me thinking the thread was about the diminutive Yank...
;-)
On topic, circular orbit? It's been awhile, but I thought that planets in our solar system moved in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus, a la Kepler's 1st law? Or is that the point, that this may turn all that on its head...?
-
Hum,
yeah, it`s circular(ish)a la Kepler.
But it shouldn`t be...it`s probably just freakish encounters with other objects, after being pushd out by Neptune, that have made it so...
-
As soon as I saw the thread title I somehow realised it'd be started by blob. Then I noticed it was in the sci/tech forum.
Is there something wrong with me?
No wait. You don't need to answer that :crazy: