Icy Wonderers from the Depths of Space
May 5th 2011 11:44
Category: Jupiter
image by Carlcan
Looking at the wonderful night sky is always a big plus especially when the weather finally clears.
Whether we are observing Nebulas, galaxies or planets they all contribute the rich tapestry that goes to make up of night sky.
From a personal point I am more interested in what’s going on a bit closer to “home” in our backyard so- to- speak.
I am interested in the fringe dwellers in our solar system the icy bodies that wonder the Kuiper Belt. Objects that roam the area beyond Neptune Pluto where the minor planets for the most part reside. Objects like Eris, Makemake, and Haumea.
This region of space boarders on the outer limits of the solar system it is home to many thousands of smaller objects that form another icy asteroid belt. Perhaps a better description would be comet central an area that spawns comets, where our Sun looks more like a bright star.
You could call this the last frontier of the solar system.
This wasteland of space for many years was not actively observed, except for some comet and asteroid hunters. I am happy to say that research undertaken over the last few decades has increased. With the advent of more sensitive telescopes and monitoring equipment coupled with the media coverage on asteroids passing Earth orbit it has created a need to keep tabs on these elusive icy wonderers.
New advances in telescopes like The Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) has already found ten Kuiper Belt objects that were previously unknown.
The newfound objects range in size from 300 to 500 km.
The future Pan-STARRS project is part of an on going survey to which 60 percent of telescope resource time will be devoted to searching and cataloging future asteroids or minor planet objects. We expect to see new distant objects in the coming months.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by laurele
Also, the word is "wanderer," not "wonderer."
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
Camera Sense
They are minor planets and your disagreement wont change the way I phrase topics on this blog.
Furthermore this blog is not generally intended to be so dogmatic as you seem to be.
“The term minor planets is a synonym for asteroids. your Celestial bodies large enough to be spherical”
That’s your argument, as I said previously I do not agree with your view.