Centaurs are minor planets believed to have originated in the Kuiper Belt in the outer solar system. They sometimes have comet-like features such as tails and comae—clouds of dust particles and gas—even though they orbit in a region between Jupiter and Neptune where it is too cold for water to readily sublimate, or transition, directly from a solid to a gas….
Tag: Minor Planets
Lighting a path to find Planet Nine
The search for Planet Nine – a hypothesized 9th planet in our solar system – may come down to pinpointing the faintest orbital trails in an incredibly dark corner of space. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/lighting-path-to-find-planet-nine…
Astronomers announce 100 new minor planets beyond Neptune
They’re called trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs. Astronomers analyzed data from the Dark Energy Survey – which just completed 6 years of observations – to find over 100 new little worlds in the cold outer reaches of our solar system. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/100-new-minor-planets-beyond-neptune…