'10th planet' has a partner.Whether or not astronomers decide to classify a recently discovered solar system solar system, the sun and the surrounding planets, natural satellites, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets that are bound by its gravity. The sun is by far the most massive part of the solar system, containing almost 99.9% of the system's total mass. body as the 10th planet, this icy object now has a feature common to most other planets. Researchers announced Sept. 30 that the body, officially dubbed 2003 UB313 but nicknamed Xena, has a moon. The newfound moon has a diameter about one-tenth that of Xena, which the scientists estimate is about 2,700 kilometers wide (SN: 8/6/05, p. 83). Xena codiscoverer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology California Institute of Technology, at Pasadena, Calif.; originally for men, became coeducational in 1970; founded 1891 as Throop Polytechnic Institute; called Throop College of Technology, 1913–20. in Pasadena and his colleagues spotted the small moon using the Keck II telescope atop Hawaii's Manna Kea. They relied on a recently completed laser system on the telescope that removes the blurring caused by Earth's atmosphere “Air” redirects here. For other uses, see Air (disambiguation). Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It contains roughly (by molar content/volume) 78% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0. . The images were as clear as they would be if taken from space. Brown's team plans to use the Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large optical orbiting observatory. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the clearest view yet obtained of the universe. later this fall to track the orbit of the moon The orbit of the Moon around the Earth is completed in approximately 27.3 days. The Earth and Moon orbit about their common center of mass, which lies about 4,700 kilometres from Earth's center (about three quarters of the Earth's radius). , which they call Gabrielle, named for the fictional Xena's sidekick on the television show Xena: Warrior Princess The concept of warrior princesses is relatively new in fiction but it became increasingly popular with the feminist movement's successes in female empowerment, gradually pushing the stereotype of a "damsel in distress" to the background. . The researchers intend to use the Gabrielle data to precisely calculate the weight of Xena, which now ranks as the most distant body known in the solar system. Brown and his team also used the Keck laser-assisted system to identify a small moon around another outer-solar-system object that they had previously found, known both as 2003 EL61 and Santa. This object, Xena, and Pluto, appear to be part of a family of entities with similar features and histories, Brown says.--R.C. |
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