Other big news from the outer solar system today!! Theres a new Sedna in town: 2012 VP113. It was discovered on my birthday in late 2012, and most recently observed on my wife and sons shared birthday in 2013. (Weird coincidences!) It averages 276 AU from the Sun, dipping in as close as 80 AU (twice the distance to Pluto) and as far out as 472 AU. Orbital period around 4,600 years. Currently around 83 AU from the Sun. 2012 VP113 is currently about 84 AU from Earth. Sedna is at 87 AU. The new guy is 2.4 mags fainter. What does that mean for size? If Im doing my math right, my estimate is that this thing has about 3x smaller diameter than Sedna. That would be somewhere around 330 km, or just a little bit bigger than Chariklo. That assumes that they have the same reflectivity, although that may be nowhere near true. (Sedna is 9x brighter but 4% further away than this new object. So yes, Sedna must be bigger.)
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 15:36:34 +0000
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