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A newly discovered trans-Neptunian object, 2014 UZ224, is the third most-distant object currently known in the solar system. It was found using images from the Dark Energy Camera as part of the Dark Energy Survey (DES):
A new face has been added to the solar system's family portrait: Scientists have discovered a new dwarf planet looping around the sun in the region beyond Pluto. The dwarf planet, called 2014 UZ224, measures about 330 miles (530 kilometers) across and is located about 8.5 billion miles (13.7 billion km) from the sun, NPR reported today (Oct. 11). For comparison, Pluto's largest moon, Charon, is about 750 miles (1,200 km) in diameter, and reaches a maximum distance of about 4.5 billion miles (7.3 billion km) from the sun.
[...] Part of the DES includes taking images of a few small patches of the sky "roughly" once per week, according to the mission website, and that's what made this new discovery possible. While stars and galaxies appear in the same place in the sky, an object that is relatively close to Earth and orbiting the sun might appear to move over the course of a week or a few weeks.
A few years ago, Gerdes asked some visiting undergraduates to look for unidentified solar system objects in the galaxy map, according to NPR. The challenge was slightly difficult because the repeated observations would take place at irregular intervals, Gerdes said, but the students developed computer software to work with the irregularities and spot moving objects. It took two years to confirm the detection of 2014 UZ224, NPR reports, and while its exact orbital path is still unclear, the scientists behind the discovery say they think that 2014 UZ224 is the third most-distant object in the solar system.
Fact sheet at David Gerdes's website.
Previously: Newly Discovered Dwarf Planet Will be Closer Than Pluto By 2096
Newly Discovered TNOs Are in Orbital Resonance With Neptune
"Niku": The Trans-Neptunian Object with a Retrograde Orbit Around the Sun
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @04:58AM
Luminiferous ethereal magicks of our time. Eggheads be idiots.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @06:10AM
Then think of it as a "dark energy falsification camera".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 16 2016, @07:27AM
Nah, they just need to search for an answer and that is just the best they've got right now. There are some other theories of gravity people have tried out, maybe they'll be proven true, or maybe there is some extra matter and energy floating around we don't know about. Oh, did you hear? Quantum physicists put out the idea that there is a "quantum foam" which is basically the aether. All these years later and we figure out that light does travel through something, it was just way weirder than the old school guys could even conceive of.