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posted by martyb on Tuesday December 18 2018, @12:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the yep,-the-name-checks-out dept.

2018 VG18 is the first solar system object to be spotted at over 100 astronomical units from the Sun. Nicknamed "Farout", the object has a diameter of around 500 km and a pinkish color:

Farout is 120 astronomical units (AU) from the sun — one AU is the distance between Earth and the sun, which is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). The object is more than 3.5 times the current distance between Pluto and the sun (34 AU), and it outpaces the previous farthest-known solar system object, the dwarf planet Eris, which is currently about 96 AU from the sun. NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft recently entered interstellar space at about 120 AU, leaving the sun's "sphere of influence" called the heliopause, where bodies experience the solar wind.

To be clear: The record Farout now holds is for the most-distant solar system body ever observed. That doesn't mean no other objects gets farther away from the sun than 120 AU. In fact, we know some that do. The dwarf planet Sedna gets more than 900 AU away on its highly elliptical orbit, for example, and there are probably trillions of comets in the Oort Cloud, which lies between about 5,000 AU and 100,000 AU from the sun.

Scott S. Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chad Trujillo, the team that discovered "Farout", also announced the discovery of 2015 TG387, "The Goblin", earlier this year. They hope to find more extreme trans-Neptunian objects in order to determine the location or existence of Planet Nine.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @01:18AM (13 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @01:18AM (#775677)

    It's worth noting that the Oort Cloud is a theoretical construction.

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 18 2018, @01:51AM (12 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 18 2018, @01:51AM (#775688) Journal

    "Yes. Not all scientists agree that it exists, there no consensus out-there; the Oort Cloud skeptics have their right to free speech and public attention."

    So, Ok, the above being said, what's the next move?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @02:52AM (9 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @02:52AM (#775705)

      They also taught everyone for 70 years that a comet is a dirty snowball, but surface observation from the last decade has revealed there's a snowball's chance in hell that this is true.

      Why can't scientist and their minions in the press actually respect the Scientific Method by using more precise language that doesn't trick the world, through endless repetition, into mistaking their ideas for fact?

      How many times must experts be proven wrong before they develope genuine humility with respect to the mysteries of our Cosmos. You want to know how to attract the youth to Science? Quit telling them you've got it all figured out already; start admitting to them that "We don't know."

      That's what's next: Genuine humility.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:16AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:16AM (#775714)

        You really thought that comets are literally packed snow? Like, not ice and rock? Just packed snow with some silicate dust?

        • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @05:19AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @05:19AM (#775742)

          When they sent a probe to land on a comet, they put spikes on its feet, so that it would stick more readily to the surface.

          Meanwhile, a "crazy nut" told them that it would be just like an asteroid and therefore bounce off the surface in an unintended fashion, which turned out to be an accurate description.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:37AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:37AM (#775718)
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:38AM

        by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:38AM (#775720)

        I absolutely agree. The sad fact is that science usually needs funding, and a whole funding machine has evolved that of course includes enticements.

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:47AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:47AM (#775725)

        You call it a travesty, I call it a nitpick.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @03:45PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @03:45PM (#776342)

          It really destroys their view of how the solar system was formed. That's fundamental. That ain't a "nitpick".

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @11:37AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @11:37AM (#775793)

        They also taught everyone for 70 years that a comet is a dirty snowball, but surface observation from the last decade has revealed there's a snowball's chance in hell that this is true.

        [[Citation needed]]

        And please, actual scientific citations, not popular science stuff. The latter is quite often simplified to the point of being wrong.

      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 18 2018, @06:59PM (1 child)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday December 18 2018, @06:59PM (#775968) Journal

        Maybe you should take a real Astronomy course instead of getting all your info from Bill Nye the Science Guy.

        He's entertaining and all but it's all first-approximation stuff with that guy (mostly 'cause he's teaching morons, AKA children).

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:37AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:37AM (#776146)

          Yep, kids are ignorant, it's true they usually don't know much. But it's because they haven't had a long time to learn, not because they are incapable of thinking.
          They are not morons like you.

    • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:04AM (1 child)

      by coolgopher (1157) on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:04AM (#775708)

      "nuke the entire site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure"

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:07AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:07AM (#775710)

        Ripley