New Discovery in Outer Solar System

[Topper]

ESO has announced a "Discovery in Outer Solar System".

I don't know whats the matter, but for all who are interested, there is a press conference tomorrow:

An international team of astronomers, led by Felipe Braga-Ribas (Observatório Nacional/MCTI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), has used telescopes at seven locations in South America, including the 1.54-metre Danish and TRAPPIST telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, to make a surprise discovery in the outer Solar System.
This unexpected result raises several unanswered questions and is expected to provoke much debate. A press conference will be held in Brazil to present the new results and allow opportunities for questions.
Note that all information regarding these findings is under strict embargo until 19:00 CET (15:00 BRT) on Wednesday 26 March 2014.

Link: http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann14021/

Please don't public any rumors or links here before the official end of the press conference.
It should be the honor of the scientist to publish their discovery.

 

[statickid]

April Fools!

 

[Urwumpe]

April Fools!

Too soon.

I expect a brown dwarf on collision course with Earth. :hmm:

 

[Einion Yrth]

Too soon.

I expect a brown dwarf on collision course with Earth. :hmm:

It says it's expected to provoke debate, not panic and abject terror.

 

[Screamer7]

Rama?:hmm::yes::lol:

 

[SolarLiner]

It says it's expected to provoke debate, not panic and abject terror.

Frozen planet with unicellular organisms inside?

 

[RisingFury]

They did give us two clues:

1.54 m telescope
TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope - 60 cm telescope

TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is a 60 cm telescope at La Silla devoted to the study of planetary systems and it follows two approaches: the detection and characterisation of exoplanets around other stars and the study of comets orbiting around the Sun. The robotic telescope is operated from a control room in Liège, Belgium. The project is led by the Department of Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography of the University of Liège, in close collaboration with the Geneva Observatory (Switzerland). TRAPPIST is mostly funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research with the participation of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

The name TRAPPIST was given to the telescope to underline the Belgian origin of the project. Trappist beers are famous all around the world and most of them are Belgian.

Science goals
Search for exoplanets; comets; Trans-Neptunian Objects.

These things are too small to image anything that far away directly, but they are good at something:

If you look at a star and an asteroid or a planet in our solar system happens to orbit in front of it, it'll temporarily block the light from that star. From the transit time, it's possible to estimate how big the object is and how far away it is.

My guess is they discovered something in the Oort cloud.

 

[romanasul]

I found some information on a site (not a trusted site) that they may have discovered a Centaur asteroid with rings orbiting somewhere between Saturn and Uranus. However don't take this too seriously as I said before the site is not very legitimate.

Edit: Crap I just read the top post where it says to not post any rumors. Sorry guys I should have read the whole thing.

 

[steph]

Why did I read this? Oh well, at least we'll find out soon enough what's the deal.
Let's hope it's something harmless, though the information embargo gives me the chills.
What could it be? Something artificial? Signs of life somewhere? Some planetoid disturbing comets in the Oort Cloud?
What's the worst case scenario? Brown dwarf, as said before? Swarm of comets diving towards the inner planets? Perhaps it's some kind of alien probe on its way to us

 

[phelix]

I am excited to hear what this is however, I have heard enough to know how mainstream works. If its anything really cool or interesting they would never tell the public. So I am sure that its just a bunch of hype and its a small planet about the size of Jupiter or something out in the oort cloud.

 

[joffrey]

That would be amazing if this is a brown dwarf in the oort cloud, a second sun !

 

[phelix]

Seems that its rings around an asteroid Chariklo

 

[Aion]

I found some information on a site (not a trusted site) that they may have discovered a Centaur asteroid with rings orbiting somewhere between Saturn and Uranus. However don't take this too seriously as I said before the site is not very legitimate.

Edit: Crap I just read the top post where it says to not post any rumors. Sorry guys I should have read the whole thing.

Looks like you/they called it:
http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann14022/

 

[dgatsoulis]

And the ESOcast vid

http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1410a/

 

[Topper]

The "ring-asteroid" is not all regarding this topic :

Dwarf planet discovery hints at a hidden Super Earth in solar system
The body, which orbits the sun at a greater distance than any other known object, may be shepherded by an unseen planet

But please be wary, I don't thing there are any proofs of this issue rigtht now!

Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/26/dwarf-planet-super-earth-solar-system-2012-vp113
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/26/tech/innovation/dwarf-planet-solar-system/
What a day...

 

[Quick_Nick]

The "ring-asteroid" is not all regarding this topic :



Source: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/26/dwarf-planet-super-earth-solar-system-2012-vp113

What a day...

I noticed that your linked article is inconsistent and also not by ESO.

 

[RisingFury]

Well, my guess wasn't right about what they found, but it was right about how they found it:

On 26 March 2014 astronomers announced the discovery of planetary rings around Chariklo by observing a stellar occultation.

So they never actually saw the rings or the asteroid, for that matter. They were looking at the star and measuring its brightness. I'm guessing what they saw was a dimming first, then increase in brightness, then the star vanished as expected, reappeared, dimmed again and went back to normal. The first dimming would have been caused by one side of the ring passing in front of the star, then the asteroid, then the other side of the ring would cause the second dimming.


Sources:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10199_Chariklo"]10199 Chariklo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1410/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...-comet-chariklo-centaur-planet-science-space/

 

[Topper]

I noticed that your linked article is inconsistent and also not by ESO.

Yes right, but both things are matching the topic "New Discovery in Outer Solar System"

 

[Aion]

The "ring-asteroid" is not all regarding this topic :


But please be wary, I don't thing there are any proofs of this issue rigtht now!

Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/26/dwarf-planet-super-earth-solar-system-2012-vp113
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/26/tech/innovation/dwarf-planet-solar-system/
What a day...

Interesting indeed. The comments section on the Guardian article has some gems as well, here's my favourite:

So until now, Sedna was the only massive planetoid that seemed to be orbiting the Sun at that massive distance away from it.

But people have been thrown by it (haha) because our current models can't explain how such a body still orbits the Sun when it's so far away (~8 light years!). Another interesting thing about Sedna is that the probability of finding it was so small – I don't understand this bit exactly but apparently the statistical likelihood of it being found in the way it was is absolutely tiny. Which, in statistical terms, means that there's likelihood there are other similar bodies out there we haven't found.

Finding another such small body allows an explanation theory to be formed: another large body would add regional mass, which, taken collectively, would allow these planets or planetoids to be pulled in by the Sun despite being so far away from it.

:facepalm:

As for the CNN comments...
Yeah, I'm not even gonna go there. :rofl:

 

[Kyle]

So, there's actually been two significant discoveries:

Another dwarf planet and an asteroid with rings.