🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan25.092930.24684@ugle.unit.no> frodet@brosme.dhmolde.no (Frode Tennebo) writes:
>
>Astronomers at the 2.2-meter-telescope at Mauna Kea have recently
>discovered a new planet in the solarsystem, which ut to this time has been
		  ^^^^^^
>unknown. The planet, which has temporarily has been named 1992 QB1
>(where those astronomers get their names from beats me), is more than six
>billion kilometers (app. 5.56 light-hours) away and orbits slowly around
>the sun outside the orbit of Pluto.
>
>1992 QB1 is much smaller than Pluto, perhaps only 200 kilometers in
>diameter. Pluto has a diameter of 2400 km.
>
>I don't know HOW new this information is and if it is common knowledge
>"out there", but if anybody has more information about this planet, I,
>and probably more with me, will be most interested.

  This has been covered before in this newsgroup.  This object is
definitely NOT a _planet_, but rather a minor planet or possibly even
a comet.  There are two other objects, namely (2060) Chiron and 
(5145) Pholus which are of comparable size in the outer solar system.  
The interesting thing about 1992 QB1 is that it may be the first member 
of a class of objects in the "Kuiper Belt", thought by some to be the 
source of low inclination, short period comets, and previously 
undetected.  The Kuiper belt is hypothesized to lie outside of the 
orbit of Neptune consists of relatively low inclination objects.

  The latest orbital elements for 1992 QB1 are:
	a=44.31 AU, e=0.10, i=2.2 degrees
  If these elements hold, (and I should remind you that even though
the arc is about 171 days on the observations, it has been observed
over an exceedingly small part of its orbit, so the elements are
necessarily uncertain) this would put QB1 on the inner edge of the
Kuiper Belt.

>--
>***************************************************************************
>* Frode Tennebo                         * It's better to live life in     *
>* email: frodet@brosme.dhmolde.no       * wealth and die poor, than live  * 
>* snail: Parkv. 44, 6400 Molde, NORWAY  * life in poverty and die rich.   *
>***************************************************************************

Jim.
---------------------------------------------
Jim Scotti 
{jscotti@lpl.arizona.edu}
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA
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