A large Kuiper Belt object discovered
Astronomers have detected a new but very distant Kuiper Belt object.
For now, his team knows little more about their distant discovery other than its orbit and apparent brightness. Given its distance, however, the object should be sizable — anywhere from 400 km across (if its surface is bright and 50% reflective) to 1,200 km (if very dark and 5% reflective). If its true size edges toward the larger end of this range, then 2014 UZ224 would likely qualify for dwarf-planet status.
Fortunately, we should have a much better estimate of the object’s size very soon. Gerdes has used the ALMA radio-telescope array to measure the heat radiating from 2014 UZ224, which can be combined with the optical measurements to yield its size and albedo.
The object has a very eccentric 1,140 year orbit, coming as close to the sun as Pluto at its closest and almost five times farther away at its furthest.
Note: I have changed the article title because this new object is almost certainly not bigger the Pluto, as one of my readers pointed out.
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Astronomers have detected a new but very distant Kuiper Belt object.
For now, his team knows little more about their distant discovery other than its orbit and apparent brightness. Given its distance, however, the object should be sizable — anywhere from 400 km across (if its surface is bright and 50% reflective) to 1,200 km (if very dark and 5% reflective). If its true size edges toward the larger end of this range, then 2014 UZ224 would likely qualify for dwarf-planet status.
Fortunately, we should have a much better estimate of the object’s size very soon. Gerdes has used the ALMA radio-telescope array to measure the heat radiating from 2014 UZ224, which can be combined with the optical measurements to yield its size and albedo.
The object has a very eccentric 1,140 year orbit, coming as close to the sun as Pluto at its closest and almost five times farther away at its furthest.
Note: I have changed the article title because this new object is almost certainly not bigger the Pluto, as one of my readers pointed out.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Pluto’s diameter is about 2,374km, so the quoted size range is rather smaller.
Ceres is a bit short of 1,000 km in diameter and classified as dwarf planet.
It feels as if the Kuiper Belt is growing. It used to be said that Pluto’s orbit spans the entire belt between peri- and aphelion (40-50 AU). But this object goes out to 150 AU and several objects even much further out have been found. There are protostellar disks which are even much larger still. Maybe the local interstellar space isn’t as empty as has been believed? This could facilitate future interstellar travel.
Enceladus at 250 km is round, and a distant object should be made out of icy volatilities. Billions of tons of frozen methane ready to be picked up and used as rocket fuel and in fuel cells for heating and electric power, combined with oxygen from frozen water, which has to be heated to be processed, though. If the rocket engine can use methane that’s not pure, raw ice blocks could be used as fuel. Frozen methane is much easier to handle than liquefied dito. And there should be plenty of frozen nitrogen too, an inert gas useful both in rocket engines and a breathable atmosphere. God created the outer Solar System for exploration!
Btw, the pressure in the center of Ceres (500 km deep) is lower than in the deepest Earth mine in operation today.