Astronomers believe they’ve detected an atmosphere around a tiny, icy world beyond Pluto
- In a study appearing Monday in Nature Astronomy, observational astronomer Ko Arimatsu of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan reported detecting a thin atmosphere around the Kuiper Belt object 2002 XV93.
- Located more than 3.4 billion miles away, the 470-kilometer-wide body is the smallest object yet found with a global atmosphere, challenging conventional views that atmospheres are limited to large planets and moons.
- Arimatsu and colleagues tracked the object using telescopes in Japan, observing a distant star's light fade gradually over about 1.5 seconds, indicating starlight refraction by a tenuous atmosphere.
- If the atmosphere persists or varies seasonally, it may point to ongoing gas supply from ice volcanoes; alternatively, the gas could stem from a recent impact by an icy body, Arimatsu noted.
- Future observations by NASA's Webb Space Telescope will verify the atmosphere's composition. "The implications are profound if verified," said Southwest Research Institute's Alan Stern, lead scientist behind NASA's New Horizons mission.
141 Articles
141 Articles
Scientists Detect Atmosphere on Planet-Like Object Beyond Pluto
Astronomers have long been fascinated by the unusual behavior of objects orbiting the Sun in the Kuiper Belt, a scattered disc of minor planets beyond the orbit of Neptune. Many of these frozen objects appear to be affected by the gravitational influence of much more massive ones, with some astronomers controversially arguing that the region could be home to a hidden ninth major planet in the solar system. However, the region’s extreme distance …
In an exciting development, astronomers have discovered a thin atmosphere around a small planet in the Kuiper Belt, opening new avenues for understanding atmospheric formation in the solar system. The discovery of an atmosphere on a Pluto-like planet has long fascinated astronomers, who have been intrigued by the unusual behavior of objects orbiting the Sun in the Kuiper Belt, a dispersed disk of minor planets beyond Neptune's orbit. Many of the…
An icy object of Kuiper's belt, much smaller than Pluto, has like it a tenuous atmosphere, according to the work of Japanese astronomers
A small world of ice with an atmosphere, discovered in the Solar System, can reveal clues about the evolution of the stars in colder and more distant regions. For now, scientists call it XV93.
The celestial body 2002 XV93 apparently has an atmosphere in the outer solar system, although according to previous models it should actually be too small.
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