blobrana FemaleFirst Chatter (200+ Posts)

Joined: 21 May 2005 Posts: 262 Location: Planet Earth, but moving soon
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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:55 am Post subject: Buffy |
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Hum,
it just caught my eye,
But, astronomers have found a puzzling new object beyond the orbit of Pluto.
The new object, nicknamed "Buffy" (yes, the vampire slayer), 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 similar 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.
http://www.geocities.com/goarana669/2004XR190.htm |
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