09-August-2006, 08:31 PM
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Vulcan Moderator
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Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Posts: 24,311
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Tiny TNOs
Tiny icy objects revealed in outer solar system
Quote:
Dozens of small icy objects have been detected in the far reaches of the solar system. Based on this sample, the objects appear far more abundant than astronomers had thought.
The objects, between 20 and 100 metres in size, are the smallest known members of a class called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), which reside beyond the orbit of Neptune. TNOs are thought to be similar in composition to comets, which are made mostly of ice, dust, and rock.
Most of the 1000 or so TNOs known are hundreds of kilometres across. The smallest previously seen was a 25-kilometre wide object spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003.
Now, astronomers have discovered 58 miniscule TNOs. They were discovered by a team led by Hsiang-Kuang Chang of National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
The objects are much too small to show up in images, even with the most powerful telescopes. Instead, the researchers detected them when they passed in front of a distant X-ray source called Scorpius X-1, causing sudden dips in its brightness.
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Min uscule!
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