Scientists have surprised themselves by finding over 100 minor planets at the edge of our solar system.
The experts worked with data collected during the Dark Energy Survey to successfully identify 316 minor planets and 139 were unknown until now.
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Its aim was to map dark energy in the southern sky but it provided more data that scientists initially realized.
The expansion of the Universe is thought to be influenced by dark energy so the survey aimed to look for things like galaxy clusters and supernovae to try and calculate how fast expansion is happening.
Quite a lot has been going on:
Arrokoth Hints at Solar System Formation | Mental Floss
A trip to the most remote part of our solar system has revealed some surprising insights into the formation of our own planet. Three new studies based on data gathered on NASA's flyby of Arrokoth—the farthest object in the solar system from Earth and the oldest body ever studied—is giving researchers a better idea of how the building blocks of planets were formed, what Arrokoth's surface is made of, and why it looks like a giant circus peanut .
That means, despite its age, Arrokoth doesn't look much different today than when it first came into being billions of years ago, making it the perfect tool for studying the origins of planets.
Astronomers Just Found More Than 100 Minor Planets at The Edge of Our Solar System
A project to map dark energy in the southern sky has brilliantly exceeded its parameters. It turns out, the Dark Energy Survey has also been adept at identifying really small objects all the way out past Neptune.
In its first four years of data, astronomers have successfully identified 316 minor planets, 139 of which are totally new.
The discoveries were made after an intensive re-analysis of said data, using new techniques that could help to find more minor planets in the far reaches of the Solar System, scientists say. They might even aid in the search for the mysterious Planet Nine , thought to be lurking out there in the dark.
Astronomers spot 139 new ‘minor planets’ in our own solar system – BGR
A massive treasure trove of newly-discovered solar system objects was just revealed by astronomers in a new research paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series . The team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania made their discoveries using observations from the Dark Energy Survey, or DES, a six-year project that led to the detection of over 300 objects lurking beyond Neptune.
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Of those hundreds of detected objects, 139 of them are new to science. The data that the team had to comb through included millions of possible objects that were detected during the survey. By cross-referencing scans and cataloging the objects that wee consistently observable, the team was able to determine which parts of the data revealed actual trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs.
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NASA to Evaluate 4 Potential Missions That Could Explore Some of the Solar System's Greatest
NASA is evaluating four new concept ideas for potential missions that could one day explore some of the mysteries of the solar system.
The concepts were chosen as part of the agency's Discovery Program—established in 1992—which invites scientists and engineers to propose missions that can deepen our understanding of our solar system.
Currently, it is not clear which of the missions will be approved. To find out, we will have to wait until next year when a maximum of two selections will be made. For now, the research groups behind each of the ideas will be given $3 million to develop their concepts.
There's a New Hypothesis For How Uranus Ended Up Tipped on Its Side
Uranus is quite the individual. Most of the planets in our Solar System have their poles more or less oriented in the same direction. And most of them are spinning anticlockwise, when viewed from above. But Uranus? Its rotation axis is oriented 98 degrees relative to its orbit , and it's whirling around in a clockwise direction.
The leading hypothesis for this weirdness is that something large smacked into Uranus a long time ago, knocking it arse over teakettle. Although that scenario is not impossible, there are some pretty significant holes in this model.
Comet 67P is hiding nitrogen that could solve a solar system mystery | New Scientist
The mystery of the missing nitrogen in comets may finally be solved. These space rocks appear to have 10 times less nitrogen than they ought to based on our understanding of how they form, but a new finding from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko might reveal how comets have been hiding their nitrogen.
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft orbited 67P between 2014 and 2016, taking pictures of the comet and measuring its environment. Analysis of the light bouncing off the comet revealed that some compound was absorbing light from its surface, but researchers couldn't immediately identify what it was.
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Astronomers find over 100 minor planets at edge of solar system https://t.co/ey4VM278W2 https://t.co/GCMNWlqw3M nypost (from New York, NY) Fri Mar 13 14:17:47 +0000 2020
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