More on the 10th planet discovery

A newer, better article related to this weeks' 10th planet discovery by CalTech astronomers was published on Sky and Telescope's website yesterday: http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1560_1.asp

When I first heard this news yesterday I initially didn't think much of it since :

1) Astronomers have already found a few large Kuiper Belt objects (objects in the ring of debris at the very outskirts of our Solar System)
2) Astronomers keep finding extra-solar planets (outside of our solar system)

But this new discovery is different than those discoveries because it is bigger than Pluto, making it more likely to receive official planetary status by the International Astronomical Union, the international body that decides the names of planets among other things. The planet's name is still waiting a response from the IAU, but is known informally as "Lila" by its discoverers. Mike Brown, one of the discoverers, says as much on his website: 2003UB313 Discovery page

Incidentally, 2003 EB313 (Lila) was officially discovered A DAY AFTER another large Kuiper Belt Object (KPO) that was officially discovered by astronomers in Spain: http://www.iaa.es/%7Eortiz/brighttno.html. This object, officially called 2003 EL61, has not received as much press as Lila, because it was smaller than Pluto.

The CalTech astronomers who discovered Lila technically also found 2003 EL61 (they called it Santa) in their data BEFORE it was discovered by the Spanish astronomers but waited too long to publish their discovery and so did not get the official discovery credit: Mike Brown's 2003 EL61 Discovery page.

So how do all the Kuiper Belt Objects discovered thus far stack up in size?

These images may help:

Good Night!

Dan