Apr 18 2002
From The Space Library
Using images from the HST, astronomers reported their analysis of a new class of objects in the solar system. The researchers reported that Kuiper Belt object 1998 WW3 1 is binary~ composed of two objects that orbit around a common center of mass as they both orbit the Sun~ with a highly eccentric orbit and a long period. However, they had found that 1998 WW3 1 is very different from the Pluto/Charon system, which was previously the only known binary in the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is the region of space that extends from Neptune, at 30 AU (astronomical units)~ the approximate mean distance between Earth and the Sun) to more than 100 AU. Since its discovery in 1992, the Kuiper Belt has helped scientists understand the solar system's formation. Although scientists had discovered 1998 WW3 1 in 1998, they had reported it as a single Kuiper Belt object. However, analysis of observations made in 2000 indicated that the object might contain two components. Further analysis, using ground-based and HST observations made in 2001 and 2002, confirmed 1998 WW3 1's binarity. (Christian Veillet, “The Binary Kuiper-Belt Object 1998 WW3 1,” Nature 416, no. 6882 (18 April 2002): 711- 713; NASA, “Hubble Hunts Down Odd Couples at the Fringes of Our Solar System,” news release 02-70, 17 April 2002.)
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