Movie showing planet motion in sky
July 31st, 2005
You can see a movie of the tenth planet showing its motion on the sky in 3.5 hours, created by Gianluca Masi at http://www.bellatrixobservatory.org/2003ub313.gif
Planet size and position
July 30th, 2005
The tenth planet is the farthest-known object in the solar system at about 9 billion miles away from the sun, and the third brightest of the Kuiper belt objects. Neptune probably flung it into its highly inclined (44°) orbit. It’s currently glowing at magnitude 18.9 in the constellation Cetus.
Tenth planet surface materials
July 30th, 2005
Like Pluto, the tenth planet’s surface is believed to be predominantly methane ice. More data may be presented in September by the US team. Methane ice is unusual and suggests a primitive surface that has never been warmed much since the formation of the solar system.
Planet part of Kuiper Belt
July 30th, 2005
The new planet is believed to be part of the Kuiper Belt, a large ring of icy objects that orbit beyond Neptune and are believed to be remnants of the material that formed the solar system. Objects in the Kuiper Belt are believed to have had a close encounter with Neptune, which then scattered them [...]
Distance of tenth planet from the sun
July 30th, 2005
The tenth planet is approximately 87 astronomical units from the sun. An astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the sun.
Size of the tenth planet
July 30th, 2005
The tenth planet is about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) across, according to Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, who led the U.S-based team who announced the discovery of the planet.
Images of tenth planet
July 30th, 2005
Viewing the tenth planet
July 30th, 2005
The tenth planet, 2003-UB313, will be visible over the next six months and is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in the Cetus constellation. It lies nine billion miles from earth so you would need a very powerful telescope to view it, such as the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory.
2003-UB313 – First name of the tenth planet
July 30th, 2005
The new 10th planet is tentatively being called 2003-UB313. The object was originally discovered in 2003, but its status as a planet was only determined this year. As astronomers detected that it was rotating around the sun, they realized that they had discovered a previously unknown planet. According to Mike Brown, a planetary scientist at [...]
Today, US astronomers have discovered 10th planet in our solar system!
July 30th, 2005
In the outer regions of our solar system, an object bigger than Pluto has been discovered and has now been designated as our tenth planet! This site, www.tenthplanet.info will chronicle the discovery of this planet, and will hopefully serve as a learning resource for future generations to come.