vendredi 13 mai 2016
Astronomers Discover Largest Unnamed Planet With 45-Hour-Long Days
We have two dwarf planets in our solar system - Pluto and Eris - and NASA has revealed that it's adding one more to the lineup. Researchers from Konkoly Observatory revealed in the Astronomical Journal that the planet, named 2007 OR10, is the third largest dwarf planet in our solar system. Its diameter is 955 miles, while Pluto measures 1,475 miles and Eris 14,445 miles.
Though researchers have known that a planet was out there, they did not guess one of this size. Konkoly researchers combined data from two different space observatories and, with the help of the Kepler and Herschel telescopes, determined 2007 OR10's measurement. The planet is said to have a dark surface and strange orbit, details that made it hard for scientists to previously determine its size. The red surface might be due to layers of methane ice, and the planet's slow rotation means it has a 45-hour day - one of the solar system's longest. This news comes after NASA also said that its Kepler Mission discovered a whopping 1,284 new planets! Stay tuned to see what else NASA and scientists continue to discover.
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