New planet found in Solar System

<body leftmargin="0" bgcolor="#000060" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF9900"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%" height="1"> <tr> <center> <td valign="top" width="33%" height="33"> <b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="5">New planet found in Solar System</font></p> </b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="1"> July 15, 2005<br> Courtesy Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes<br> and World Science staff<br> </font> <b> <font face="Arial" size="2"><br> Astronomers said they have discovered a new planet in our Solar System, and the first one bigger than Pluto since that object was discovered in 1930.<br> <br> The planet is also further away than Pluto, the researchers said. Pluto is the furthest known Solar System object that is widely accepted as being a planet, though not everyone defines it as such.<br> <br> “This object is at least the size of Pluto and likely a bit larger,” the wrote the California Institute of Technology’s Michael E. Brown, one of the discoverers, on his website this week.<br> <br> “The planet, with the current temporary name 2003UB313, was discovered in an ongoing survey at Palomar Observatory’s Samuel Oschin telescope,” he added.<br> <br> The Palomar Observatory is on the Palomar Mountain in California.<br> <br> Brown asserted that he made the finding along with Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Chile and Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz of Yale University in New Haven, Conn.. <br> <br> Brown said the group has proposed a name for the new planet to the International Astornomical Union, the organization in charge of nomenclature of celestial objects.<br> <br> A few other planet-like Solar System objects have been discovered since Pluto was identified, but none are bigger than Pluto, and astronomers don’t agree on whether to call them planets. They are widely considered to be something in between planets and asteroids.* * * </font> </p> </b> <p><b><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#FFFFFF">Send us a <a href="mailto:editor@world-science.net">comment</a> on this story, or <a href="mailto:?Body=http://www.world-science.net/othernews/050729_planetfrm.htm">send it to a friend</a></font></b> </p> <p>  </p> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </body>