Showing posts with label Object. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Object. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

First Team To Study A Kuiper Belt Object During A Stellar Occultation



Until now, astronomers have used telescopes to find Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs), moon-sized bodies, and obtain their spectra to determine what types of ices are on their surface. They have also used thermal-imaging techniques to get a rough idea of the size of KBOs, but other details have been difficult to glean.

While astronomers think there are about 70,000 KBOs that are larger than 100 kilometers in diameter, the objects' relatively small size and location make it hard to study them in detail.

One method that has been has been proposed for studying KBOs is to observe one as it passes briefly in front of a bright star; such events, known as stellar occultations, have yielded useful information about other planets in the solar system.

Read the entire article:
http://www.spacedaily.com/...

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10333601.stm



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Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Mystery Object Defies Astronomical Classification



A mysterious object discovered near a brown dwarf doesn’t fit into any known astronomical category. The newly discovered mystery companion forms a binary system with the brown dwarf, located 460 light-years away in the Taurus star-forming system. The object is too light to be another brown dwarf, but it’s too young to have formed by accretion, the way a typical planet does.

“Although this small companion appears to have a mass that is comparable to the mass of planets around stars, we don’t think it formed like a planet,” said astronomer Kevin Luhman of Penn State University, co-author of the study April 5 in The Astrophysical Journal. “This seems to indicate that there are two different ways for nature to make small companions.”

Read the entire article:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/mystery-space-object/#ixzz0kW9Syd2o




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