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New Potential Dwarf Planet Discovered By Astronomers

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Pluto may soon have companions, as astronomers announce that they have found another likely dwarf planet in the busy area beyond Neptune.

Scientists in a survey at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii have been tacking over 600 bodies in the Kuiper belt, an icy ring of debris close to the former ninth planet. One of the bodies turned out to be this likely dwarf planet, the New York Times reports.

Michele Bannister, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria and member of the survey, said,

This is a big fish among a whole lot of small ones we’re working with.

Since NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made its historic Pluto flyby last year, astronomers have continued to make new revelations in the Kuiper belt and what these say about the beginnings of the solar system. Studying these objects has also provided insights into the formation and migration of the four giant gas planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

But even if this newly discovered dwarf planet is classified as such, it will take years before it earns an official designation, which is just part of the confusing definitions of the International Astronomical Union that demoted Pluto in 2006 and cut the solar system’s number of planets down to eight.

Over 100 bodies in the solar system, except for one located along the Kuiper belt, seem to meet the current definition of a dwarf planet, a category that the IAU came up with to describe Pluto, along with Ceres, the largest asteroid, and Eris, a body in the Kuiper belt smaller than Pluto. Advocates continue to fight to restore Pluto to full planet status, though.

The likely dwarf planet has been designated 2015 RR245 and was first seen in February as astronomers looked through images taken by New Horizons. Further observations confirmed that the object had a 700-year rotation around the sun, in a loping path.

Astronomers are unable to accurately measure the size of their discovery, but have used brightness, distance and an assumption of how reflective its surface is to estimate its diameter at around 370 to 500 miles wide.

It is also unclear if 2015 RR245 is round, which is the definition of a dwarf planet, in that it has a strong enough gravity to pull itself into the shape of a ball.

The astronomical union has been taking its time in designating new dwarf planets. Only two have been officially added since 2006: Haumea and Makemake. There are many contenders for dwarf planet status in the Kuiper belt, and if the estimates are correct, 2015 RR245 would only be the 19th largest likely dwarf planet. Larger bodies like Orcus, Quaoar, Salacia and others with designations like 2007 OR10 and 2002 MS4 are also in line.

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