July is indeed an exciting month for fans of newly identified space items. Last week, astronomers described Amino acidpotential dwarfs outside Pluto. Yesterday, astronomers announced their existence Betelbuddya small companion star spinning betelgeuse. Now, we have another exciting discovery.
exist Journal of Planetary Science A paper published earlier this month, astronomers with a survey of larger tilted objects (Lido) reported the discovery of 2020 vn40, a rare distant object that every ten Orbits Neptune orbits the sun every day. Astronomers have classified the 2020 VN40 as Trans-Neptunian Object– A type of small objects and dwarf planets orbiting the sun around Neptune. Small objects have a peculiar inclined track, put them in Orbital resonance Neptune has a ratio of 10:1. This means that two celestial bodies will affect each other’s movement, locking them in a clean, neat proportion of orbital cycles.
“This is an important step to understanding the external solar system,” said Rosemary Pike, principal investigator at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonians, statement. “It shows that even very distant areas affected by Neptune can contain objects and provide us with new clues about how the solar system develops.”
Discovering an odd number of objects in the solar system is always the reason for celebration, but the 2020 VN40 stands out for two reasons. First, it supports the idea that Neptune’s gravity can pull distant objects into the inner solar system – astronomers have documented other distant objects.
More importantly, the 2020 VN40 has a strange, tilted orbit that will be close to the sun when it is closest to Neptune, the opposite of how most similar objects behave. According to the study authors, this tilt is the reason for the observed orbital synchronization between the Neptune and the 2020 VN40, where smaller objects complete once every ten Orbits Neptune to approach the sun. This means that in 2020 VN, one year equals 1,650 Earth Years!
“This new motion is like finding a hidden rhythm in a song we think we know,” said UC Santa Cruz astronomer Ruth Murray-Clay. “It may change our perception of how far-flung objects move.”
“This is just the beginning,” said Kathryn Volk of the Institute of Planetary Sciences. “We are opening a new window into the solar system.”
