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Scientists Nickname Planet-Like Object 'Biden'
newsmax ^ | 3/27/14 | c coren

Posted on 03/27/2014 1:16:15 PM PDT by bestintxas

It's official name is "2012 VP-113." But astronomers have nicknamed the newly discovered planet-like object on the edge of the solar system "Biden."

Smiling Joe, nick-named for Vice President Joe Biden, is 7 billion miles away from the sun and has its own celestial body, The Washington Post reported. Biden is quite small at 280 miles in diameter, and scientists say it could be dwarf planet. Pluto, which was deemed a dwarf planet in 2006 has a diameter of 1,430 miles. By contrast, Earth is 7,900 miles across.

It has a temperature of minus 430 degrees Fahrenheit and is likely covered in ice.

The discovery was reported in the science journal Nature by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington and Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.

It was spotted from a ground telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile in November 2012.

They say that "Biden" could help explain how the solar system was formed.

"It goes to show that there's something we don't know about our solar system, and it's something important," said Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.

"We're starting to get a taste of what's out beyond what we consider the edge."

It is in a region called the Oort Cloud, which is 30 to 50 astronomical units (AU) away from the Kuiper Belt where Pluto is located.

A similar planetary object was discovered in 2004 called Sedna, which is also in the Oort Cloud and is 76 AU from the Sun. Biden is 80 AU away. Sedna can stray 1,000 AU from the Sun, but Biden never goes more than 452 AU away.

The fact that it seems so bound by the Sun's gravitational pull is also a mystery, Sheppard told Nature.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2012vp113; biden; catastrophism; dwarfplanet; kbo; minorplanet; pinkplanet; xplanets
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To: bestintxas
How do you get to minus 430 degrees Fahrenheit? I thought absolute zero was minus 273 degrees Fahrenheit. As you add heat energy you can keep increasing the temperature, but if you remove all the heat energy, you can't go any lower than absolute zero.
21 posted on 03/27/2014 1:35:07 PM PDT by Teotwawki (For a person to get a thing without paying for it, another must pay for it without getting it.)
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To: bestintxas

At first glance I thought it said “plant-like object” and that made sense, too.


22 posted on 03/27/2014 1:35:07 PM PDT by PLMerite
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To: CrappieLuck

.....VP Biden is Ready to go

"Barack is sending me on a mission to check out the asteroid named after me...(Singing) The pink space rock, the sun's friendliest plan-et... "

23 posted on 03/27/2014 1:36:57 PM PDT by BigEdLB (Now there ARE 1,000,000 regrets - but it may be too late.)
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To: bestintxas

No identifiable intelligence there, so it’s a good name.


24 posted on 03/27/2014 1:38:54 PM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: bestintxas

Of no importance and devoid of anything but temperature...sounds like the perfect name.


25 posted on 03/27/2014 1:39:11 PM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: bestintxas

Is it a big flaming ball of gas?


26 posted on 03/27/2014 1:42:22 PM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: bestintxas

they’ve discovered something very dense.


27 posted on 03/27/2014 1:44:09 PM PDT by MNDude
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To: bestintxas

...because it’s so dense?


28 posted on 03/27/2014 1:47:35 PM PDT by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th (and 17th))
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Comment #29 Removed by Moderator

To: Teotwawki

I think absolute zero is actually -273 Celsius, or about -460 Fahrenheit.


30 posted on 03/27/2014 1:50:46 PM PDT by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th (and 17th))
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Comment #32 Removed by Moderator

To: bestintxas
Biden is quite small at 280 miles in diameter, and scientists say it could be dwarf planet

I'd say more so a Dummy planet, gravitationally bound to another dummy object ...

33 posted on 03/27/2014 1:53:49 PM PDT by mikrofon (Members of the "$oros System")
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To: bestintxas

Slow Joe has the computing power of a box of rocks at absolute zero!


34 posted on 03/27/2014 1:55:53 PM PDT by PTBAA
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To: bestintxas

” But astronomers have nicknamed the newly discovered planet-like object on the edge of the solar system “Biden.””

Because it’s spinning off it’s axis...


35 posted on 03/27/2014 1:57:11 PM PDT by Tallguy
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To: bestintxas
No intelligent life.
Wanders around the solar system like a drunk.
Orbit is as far from reality as you can imagine.
A cold and desolate frozen rock of no importance.

We'll call it Biden! Genius!

36 posted on 03/27/2014 2:01:41 PM PDT by eggman (End the Obama occupation of the White House!)
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To: topher

Named Biden, because like Biden, it out there!


37 posted on 03/27/2014 2:03:33 PM PDT by grobur
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To: bestintxas
how about just LOST IN SPACE...

.. kinda describes ol’ Plagiarizing Plugs pretty well, huh?

38 posted on 03/27/2014 2:03:34 PM PDT by Kodos the Executioner (.. the revolution is successful, but survival depends upon drastic measures..")
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To: bestintxas
Biden, I knew was way out there, but not that far.

Just wondering, where is Planet Ronald W. Reagan? I think planet Obama is getting the run around from planet Putin.

39 posted on 03/27/2014 2:07:27 PM PDT by ExCTCitizen (I'm ExCTCitizen and I approve this reply. If it does offend Libs, I'm NOT sorry...)
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To: bestintxas

Because he and it are dim....


40 posted on 03/27/2014 2:11:00 PM PDT by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
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