A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
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Re: A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
#2> could possibly reach magnitude 13 in early 2031
Don't get too excited about looking at this one; that's a bit brighter than Pluto, so you'd need a pretty decent telescope to spot it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitude_(astronomy)#Examples
Re: A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
#3I think it is not so exceptional, it is just this is one of the first ones we spotted.
Practically "outer solar system objects" and "interstellar objects" are overlapping categories since there is transport between the two.
Re: A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
#4How fast can we build and launch something to rendezvous with this dwarf planet?
Re: A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
#5I wonder how/IF this will cause anything to spike solar flares? that's what's scary to me - all it takes is one big burst and bye bye to our tech....
Re: A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
#6I wonder how/IF this will cause anything to spike solar flares? that's what's scary to me - all it takes is one big burst and bye bye to our tech....
A dwarf planet wandering around Saturn's orbit isn't gonna do very much to the Sun.
Re: A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
#7I wonder how/IF this will cause anything to spike solar flares? that's what's scary to me - all it takes is one big burst and bye bye to our tech....
No, no need to worry. Coronal mass ejections causing geomagnetic storms are really something to worry about but this thing is just a piece of rock flying around the Sun at very far distances (from our point of view). It is coming no closer than eleven astronomical units to Sun (1 AU is the mean distance of Earth to Sun).
Re: A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
#8I wonder how/IF this will cause anything to spike solar flares? that's what's scary to me - all it takes is one big burst and bye bye to our tech....
I’m not seeing the relation other than it’s also in space (so is the earth and everything on it by the way).
Why would this do anything to spike solar flares? It’s a lump of rock and ice 130km across, further out than Saturn. What possible mechanism do you think there is that would cause that to occur?
Re: A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
#9How fast can we build and launch something to rendezvous with this dwarf planet?
New Horizons took a nearly straight shot to Pluto (just stopping by Jupiter on the way for a gravity assist). That trip took 9 years to travel 40 AU (not at constant speed, of courses, since it's constantly being drawn toward the Sun). This dwarf planet makes its closest approach at 10 AU, so you could do a fly by in less than 3 years if you wanted to pay for it. However, the science return from a flyby would be limited compared to falling into orbit around it.
Rosetta took 10 years to match pace with and orbit a comet (which had a closest approach to the Sun less than 1 AU) using a number of gravity assists.
https://raminskibba.net/2014/08/17/rosetta-and-the-comet/amp...
https://raminskibba.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/f4-large.jpg...
Re: A dwarf planet coming within 11 AU of the sun over the next 10 years
#10I wonder how/IF this will cause anything to spike solar flares? that's what's scary to me - all it takes is one big burst and bye bye to our tech....
I’m not seeing the relation other than it’s also in space (so is the earth and everything on it by the way). Why would this do anything to spike solar flares? It’s a lump of rock and ice 130km across, further out than Saturn. What possible mechanism do you think there is that would cause that to occur?
@messe guess you're right - I'll take the downvotes...