[meteorite-list] Huge Rock-Ice Body Circles Sun (2003 VS2)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:27:50 2004
Message-ID: <200311171636.IAA03787_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3277033.stm

Huge rock-ice body circles Sun
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News
November 17, 2003

Astronomers have found a large object
orbiting the Sun near Neptune's orbit.

It was discovered on Friday by an
automated sky survey project designed to
search for threatening asteroids that may
be on an Earth impact course.

The object is about 570 km across, making
it one of the largest bodies of its kind
found in modern times.

The new body, made of rock and ice, is
designated 2003 VS2. Re-examining past
records, astronomers have found it in
images taken as far back as 1998.

Resonance orbit

The object is one of the largest yet found
in the Kuiper Belt, a region of space
littered with small rocky worlds orbiting
the Sun.

It was discovered by the automated Near
Earth Asteroid Tracking (Neat) project
using a large telescope at Mount Palomar
in California, US.

It is in a so-called resonance orbit with
Neptune. This means that it completes
two orbits of the Sun for every three
completed by the eighth planet.

Such orbits are stable as they allow the
object to approach Neptune's orbit
without any possibility of collision. Pluto,
currently the most distant true planet, is
in such an orbit.

Because of the similarity, 2003 VS2 has
been dubbed "Plutino", or "little Pluto".

Since the first Kuiper Belt Object was
discovered in 1992, several hundred have
been found, and many of them are in the
Neptune resonance condition, too.
Received on Mon 17 Nov 2003 11:36:11 AM PST