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Ancient, Exiled Asteroid Discovered Beyond Neptune


T. McGrath

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Astronomers have spotted a carbon-rich asteroid in the icy region beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt — the first such asteroid ever found exiled from the inner solar system.

This asteroid, known as 2004 EW95, likely formed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter but was soon hurled out into the Kuiper Belt, according to a statement released today (May 9) by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). This ancient, exiled rock from the solar system's primordial days provides unprecedented evidence of what that early time was really like, researchers said in the statement.

https://www.space.com/40532-exiled-ancient-asteroid-discovered.html

2004 EW95: A Phyllosilicate-bearing Carbonaceous Asteroid in the Kuiper Belt - Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 855, Number 2, March 15, 2018

This is not a small asteroid either.  Although the article does not mention the size of the asteroid, the paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters estimates the diameter of the asteroid to be 265.2 > 291.1 < 311.4 km.

Free Preprint:  https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.10163

Edited by T. McGrath
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32 minutes ago, T. McGrath said:

This is not a small asteroid either.  Although the article does not mention the size of the asteroid, the paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters estimates the diameter of the asteroid to be 265.2 > 291.1 < 311.4 km.

Free Preprint:  https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.10163

Where did you get the size of the object? I think maybe you are off by a factor of 1000... 

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2 hours ago, Moontanman said:

Where did you get the size of the object? I think maybe you are off by a factor of 1000... 

I got the size of the asteroid from the paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, and its estimated size is 265.2 > 291.1 < 311.4 km.

2004 EW95: A Phyllosilicate-bearing Carbonaceous Asteroid in the Kuiper Belt - Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 855, Number 2, March 15, 2018

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19 minutes ago, Sensei said:

On the list of known Trans-Neptunian objects there is much more of them:

http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/tnoslist.html

 

I misunderstood what was being said, I was thinking a new asteroid in the inner solar system... 

16 minutes ago, T. McGrath said:

I got the size of the asteroid from the paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, and its estimated size is 265.2 > 291.1 < 311.4 km.

2004 EW95: A Phyllosilicate-bearing Carbonaceous Asteroid in the Kuiper Belt - Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 855, Number 2, March 15, 2018

Thank you. 

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3 hours ago, Sensei said:

On the list of known Trans-Neptunian objects there is much more of them:

http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/tnoslist.html

 

The number of trans-Neptunian carbonaceous asteroids is considerably smaller.  The vast majority of trans-Neptunian objects formed in the Kuiper Belt, or beyond, and tend to be icy bodies.  It is a rare thing to find an asteroid that formed inside the frost line orbiting beyond the planet of Neptune.

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5 hours ago, Moontanman said:

Where did you get the size of the object? I think maybe you are off by a factor of 1000... 

Yeah.....he was.

Actual approximate size of EW95 is about 180 miles in diameter. That's around the long ways. It's sorta potato shaped. And is about 120 miles diameter wide.

So a bit less than half a Pluto.

Which begs the question if it can be rightly called massive?

Edited by Velocity_Boy
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12 hours ago, Velocity_Boy said:

Yeah.....he was.

Actual approximate size of EW95 is about 180 miles in diameter. That's around the long ways. It's sorta potato shaped. And is about 120 miles diameter wide.

So a bit less than half a Pluto.

Which begs the question if it can be rightly called massive?

Considering that it is 7th in size among all the inner asteroids I think massive is accurate... 

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