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Farthest, Faintest Solar System Objects Found Beyond Neptune

distant worlds

Baltimore - Sep 08, 2003
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered three of the faintest and smallest objects ever detected beyond Neptune. Each object is a lump of ice and rock -- roughly the size of Philadelphia -- orbiting beyond Neptune and Pluto, where the icy bodies may have dwelled since the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. They reside in a ring-shaped region called the Kuiper Belt, which houses a swarm of icy rocks that are leftover building blocks, or "planetesimals," from the solar system's creation.

The results of the search were announced by a group led by astronomer Gary Bernstein of the University of Pennsylvania at today's meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences in Monterey, Calif.

The study's big surprise is that so few Kuiper Belt members were discovered. With Hubble's exquisite resolution, Bernstein and his co- workers expected to find at least 60 Kuiper Belt members as small as 10 miles (15 km) in diameter -- but only three were discovered.


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The Moon Eclipses Jupiter
Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 30, 2004
Picture this: You're an astronaut driving a moon buggy across the dusty plains of Mare Crisium. It's nighttime, but not dark. There's a big bright gibbous Earth hanging low behind your back, and it lights up the moonscape, softly, as far as the eye can see. You turn off the headlights and hit the accelerator.

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