Artist's impression: 2003 EL61 is a strange object
Posted on 11/07/2008 9:48:03 PM PST by SunkenCiv
An unusual dwarf planet discovered in the outer Solar System could be en route to becoming the brightest comet ever known.
2003 EL61 is a large, dense, rugby-ball-shaped hunk of rock with a fast rotation rate.
Professor Mike Brown has calculated that the object could be due a close encounter with the planet Neptune.
If so, Neptune's gravity could catapult it into the inner Solar System as a short-period comet.
"If you came back in two million years, EL61 could well be a comet," said Professor Brown, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena.
"When it becomes a comet, it will be the brightest we will ever see."
Professor Brown's computer simulations show that the object is on a very unstable orbit and set for a close encounter with Neptune.
The eighth planet's gravitational force could either sling the icy rock ball into the inner Solar System as a comet, out into the distant Oort Cloud region, or even into interstellar space.
Mike Brown and his colleagues have come up with a scenario to explain 2003 EL61's physical characteristics and behaviour.
About 4.5 billion years ago, the object that became 2003 EL61 was a ball, half composed of ice and half of rock - like Pluto - and about the same size as Pluto.
Some time early in its history, it was smacked, edge on, by another large KBO. This broke off much of 2003 EL61's icy mantle, which coalesced to form several satellites.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Artist's impression: 2003 EL61 is a strange object
Haumea (2003 EL61)
the strangest known object in the Kuiper belt
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/2003EL61/
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I need new batteries for my camera.
When’s it comming?
Must be prepared for the overlords.
Darn! I thought it was headed here in 2012.
It's a date!
I'll make sure to mark that in my calendar...
“An unusual dwarf planet discovered in the outer Solar System ..”
—
Ohhh, what to name it?
Kucinich. Dwarf. From outer space. It all fits perfectly.
Excellent!
a bit arrogant to presume humans will be here that much longer...
Doesn’t appear as though the artist had much of an impression of 2003 EL61.
I’ll write that in my day planner for future observation!
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