New Planet Discovered

The AP is reporting a discovery of a new planet:

LOS ANGELES (AP) - It is a frozen world more than 8 billion miles from Earth and believed to be the farthest known object within our solar system.

NASA planned a Monday press conference to offer more details about Sedna, a planetoid between 800 miles and 1,100 miles in diameter, or about three-quarters the size of Pluto.

Named for the Inuit goddess who created the sea creatures of the Arctic, Sedna lies more than three times farther from the sun than Pluto. It was discovered in November.

"The sun appears so small from that distance that you could completely block it out with the head of a pin," said Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology who led the NASA-funded team that found Sedna.

That makes Sedna the largest object found orbiting the sun since the discovery of Pluto, the ninth planet, in 1930. It trumps in size another world, called Quaoar, discovered by the same team in 2002.

Brown and his colleagues estimate the temperature on Sedna never rises above 400 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, making it the coldest known body in the solar system.

Click on the two links above for the mythologies of Sedna and Quaoar. We have entered the age of politically-correct planet naming. Quaoar is a creation force in Tongva (a Native American tribe near Los Angeles) mythology. Sedna is a goddess in Inuit mythology. I guess dead white European mythology doesn't cut it anymore.

Comments

[LEKU BLAISE]

please i am a geology student in the university of Buea in Cameroon and i am impress with the disovrey.please i wish if you cuold please inform me on the name of the planet, its size and it radius.
Thank

[Rich]

Here's a size comparison table of Kuyper Belt Planetoids:

Object     Year       Diameter
Name       Discovered in Miles
----       ---------- --------
Sedna      2004       995 
2004 DW    2004       995 
Quaoar     2002       745 
Ixion      2001       660 
Varuna     2000       560 

For comparison purposes, Pluto is 1429 miles in diameter.

[hyun]

are there more planets in the solar systems?

[Rich]

are there more planets in the solar systems?

Probably not, the objects mentioned above are planetoids because they are not large enough to qualify for planets. The infamous Planet X was never found and probably never will be.

[Demitree]

Look out on Jan 28 2005 - wne us proble lands to search for life

[halil]

hai, i'm interesting to know,its true that all planet are twelve?? the new planet still exist now?

[Mazen]

The number of the planets are 11, that is written in the Quran, and now, Scientist's found that out.

[Alexis]

hi i am a 10- year old kid that loves solar system. Maybe all of us being Dizzy if there are 12 planet on the whole solar system, i needs about an article on science but i choose solar system because its more fun than playing because in this article you will learn more about our Solar System and maybe you will be our future astronomer. I know that there are only 9 planets but now i believe that there are 3 planets exist. Thank you very much for listening in my comment. I am a Filipino(Ako ay Pilipino). God Bless you all!