Space News: Astronomers find a mini-Pluto
Neither planet nor moon-it’s a plutino, an object that orbits the Sun in
the same amount of time as Pluto, but is too small to be called a planet.
The object, named, 2000 EB173, (I’ll bet kids can think of a better
name than that) was found using data collected by a 39-inch (1-meter) telescope
at the CIDA Observatory in Venezuela. The space rock is estimated at about
one-quarter the size of Pluto and joins a club of more than 300 other "trans-Neptunian
objects," small bodies that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune. The size of the
object has been estimated from 300 to 700 kilometers in diameter.
All discoveries of this type are made to the International Astronomical
Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
