Astronomers Find the Farthest-Out Solar System Object Ever Seen!

Astronomers have spotted the most distant object ever seen in the Solar System: a frigid world that currently lies 103 times as far from the Sun as Earth is. It breaks a record previously held by the dwarf planet Eris, which had been seen at 90 times the Earth-Sun distance.

Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, reported the object on November 10 at the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.

Astronomers have not tracked it entirely, saying...“There’s no reason to be excited yet.”

Still, the object's discovery gives a rare glimpse at the fringes of the Solar System.

Inner Oort cloud objects are more intriguing than Kuiper belt objects because they lie too far away from Neptune to have ever been influenced by its pull, says Sheppard. Instead, their orbits likely reflect primordial conditions in the Solar System, which formed more than 4.5 billion years ago — making them tantalizing targets for astronomers.

Pretty cool!
Farthest Out Object

very cool. Hope they have more concrete info soon

a reply to: Cosmic911

Looks like a giant space egg.

a reply to: Cosmic911

Interesting !

It's things like this that get me wondering just how far do the gravitational tentacles of our solar system reach out into the galaxy ?

originally posted by: CranialSponge
a reply to: Cosmic911

Interesting !

It's things like this that get me wondering just how far do the gravitational tentacles of our solar system reach out into the galaxy ?

Me too! Reminds me that we don't know everything about the physics involved in astronomy.

a reply to: CranialSponge

The Sun's influence goes pretty damn far It takes 30 odd years for an extremely fast space craft to go beyond it.

a reply to: Cosmic911

Maybe we're just a big ol' ship sailing across the ocean collecting a whole bunch of barnacles along the way... cosmic barnacles.

Crazy thought process, but interesting to ponder nonetheless.

a reply to: scorpio84

You would think the sun's influence would stop at the edge of the heliosphere, but maybe not ?

a reply to: CranialSponge

Cosmic barnacles!!! That's great!

a reply to: Cosmic911

Nibiru, or ....



(?)

a reply to: CranialSponge

Can't say I know enough about astronomy to say one way or the other.

a reply to: CranialSponge

It's things like this that get me wondering just how far do the gravitational tentacles of our solar system reach out into the galaxy ?

All the way to where the next closest stars gravity influence begins.

If the whole Universe was empty except for two atoms placed at either end, motionless relative to each other, their gravitational forces would slowly and inexorably pull them together.

a reply to: intrptr

All the way to where the next closest stars gravity influence begins.

The region where the two stars' gravity interacts, is there a phenomena that occurs there? Or is it nothing special? I know Newton's laws of gravity describe the interactions between two objects, but what if the only 'objects' are gravity fields? Or is this an inaccurate concept?

originally posted by: Cosmic911
a reply to: intrptr

All the way to where the next closest stars gravity influence begins.

The region where the two stars' gravity interacts, is there a phenomena that occurs there? Or is it nothing special?

The only thing I can relate it to is how rain drops fall. They are separate equal gobs of water, falling together in the earths gravity. Suns 'fall' around the center of gravity in the galaxy.

originally posted by: intrptr

originally posted by: Cosmic911
a reply to: intrptr

All the way to where the next closest stars gravity influence begins.

The region where the two stars' gravity interacts, is there a phenomena that occurs there? Or is it nothing special?

The only thing I can relate it to is how rain drops fall. They are separate equal gobs of water, falling together in the earths gravity. Suns 'fall' around the center of gravity in the galaxy.

Ok. Are suns/stars always the center of galaxies? I know this demonstrates my ignorance of the subject matter.

originally posted by: CranialSponge
a reply to: Cosmic911

Interesting !

It's things like this that get me wondering just how far do the gravitational tentacles of our solar system reach out into the galaxy ?

There isn't any cutoff point. Gravity follows the inverse square law. As distance doubles, force is reduced by a quarter.

Gravity at the Sun's surface = 274 meters/second^2 at a distance of 700,000 miles radius.

By the time you reach the distance of the Earth's orbit, the force is about 5.9E-3 meters/sec^2

It's a tiny amount, but given the momentum of the Earth, it's enough to keep the planet in a stable orbit.

originally posted by: Cosmic911
a reply to: intrptr

All the way to where the next closest stars gravity influence begins.

The region where the two stars' gravity interacts, is there a phenomena that occurs there? Or is it nothing special? I know Newton's laws of gravity describe the interactions between two objects, but what if the only 'objects' are gravity fields? Or is this an inaccurate concept?

With any two gravitational objects, there are five points where the gravitational fields cancel out. These are known as Langrangian points.

en.wikipedia.org...

These points can collect all sorts of space debris. Jupiter has 1 million objects at these points.

a reply to: Cosmic911

Ok. Are suns/stars always the center of galaxies?

The center of gravity in a galaxy is the mass at the center, pretty sure they are massive, called black holes. The objects like stars and stuff rotate around that, like a Hurricane seen from space, where every drop of rain is a star.

So moons around planets, around stars, around galaxies, around each other (we haven't found anything bigger yet, except imo, what they call Quasars).

a reply to: intrptr

So moons around planets, around stars, around galaxies, around each other (we haven't found anything bigger yet, except imo, what they call Quasars).

Succinctly put! Thank you!!!

a reply to: stormcell

I've never heard of these points. Thanks. Gives me some good reading tonight!