Occultation Reveals Distant Kuiper Belt Object is Surprisingly Icy Bright
id="attachment_66668" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 260px">href="http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/kbo.jpg">src="http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/kbo-250x187.jpg" alt="" title="An artist's rendering of a Kuiper Belt object. Image: NASA" width="250" height="187" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-66668" />class="wp-caption-text">An artist's rendering of a Kuiper Belt object. Image: NASA
/> How do you study an extremely small planetary body in the dim outer reaches of our
href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-sun/solar/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">solar system? Get all your friends from around the world to wait for a very elusive – if not short-lived – special event. And in doing so, you may find something completely unexpected. Enter James Elliot from MIT. Elliot and astronomers from observatories across the globe teamed up to make observations of the
href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/outer-solar-system/kuiper-belt/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">Kuiper Belt Object 55636, a small body orbiting beyond
href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/neptune/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">Neptune. Since the
href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/the-solar-system/kbo/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">KBO is too small and distant for direct observations of its surface, Elliot tracked and plotted its course, figuring out when it would pass in front of a distant
href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/stars/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">star. "For several years, we've been accurately measuring the position of the KBO," Elliot said in an article in
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10333601.stm">BBC. "With an accurate
href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/astronomy/orbit/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">orbit, we just projected where it was going to be in the sky and looked for
href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/stars/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">stars that it might occult."
The KBO occulted, or passed in front of a bright background star, an event which lasted only 10 seconds. But this was enough time to determine the object's size and href="http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/astronomy/albedo/" class="alinks_links" title="" rel="external">albedo. And both of these results were surprising./> (...)
Read the rest of href="http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/18/occulation-reveals-distant-kuiper-belt-object-is-surprisingly-icy-bright/">Occultation Reveals Distant Kuiper Belt Object is Surprisingly Icy Bright (356 words)
/>
© nancy for href="http://www.universetoday.com">Universe Today, 2010. | href="http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/18/occulation-reveals-distant-kuiper-belt-object-is-surprisingly-icy-bright/">Permalink | href="http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/18/occulation-reveals-distant-kuiper-belt-object-is-surprisingly-icy-bright/#comments">3 comments |
Add to href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/18/occulation-reveals-distant-kuiper-belt-object-is-surprisingly-icy-bright/&title=Occultation Reveals Distant Kuiper Belt Object is Surprisingly Icy Bright">del.icio.us
Post tags: href="http://www.universetoday.com/tag/kuiper-belt-objects/" rel="tag">kuiper belt objects, href="http://www.universetoday.com/tag/occulations/" rel="tag">occulations
Feed enhanced by href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed from href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh
Full story at http://www.universetoday.com/2010/06/18/occulation-reveals-distant-kuiper-belt-object-is-surprisingly-icy-bright/
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment