Astronomers say they have detected an asteroid beyond the orbit of Pluto that is in the amiss place . But while left , it could tell us more about our own beginnings .
Called 2004 EW95 , the asteroid is unparalleled in that it is plentiful in carbon – the first such rock found so far from the Sun . It probably formed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter before being chuck out out to its current localization in the Kuiper Belt .
The asteroid was contemplate by a squad using the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very great Telescope in Chile They looked at the light excogitate by the asteroid to see how it equate to other Kuiper Belt Objects ( KBOs ) . Their finding were bring out in a study inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters .
“ The reflection factor spectrum of 2004 EW95 was clearly distinct from the other observed prohibited Solar System objects , ” lead author Tom Seccull from Queen ’s University Belfast in the UK say in astatement . “ It looked enough of a weirdo for us to take a faithful spirit . ”
2004 EW95 is thought to be about 300 kilometer ( 190 miles ) across , although it orbit about 4 billion kilometers ( 2.5 billion land mile ) from Earth . This made studying it quite unmanageable , described as observing a giant mint of coal against a slant - black sky .
The discovery of this asteroid is important because it open us a bit more grounds for one of our key theories of how the Solar System constitute 4.6 billion years ago . It ’s think that the gas giantsplowed throughthe untried system , have bouldered bodies to be flung out to the outer range .
Finding a carbon - rich asteroid like this hold up this theory , because it is quite different to other KBOs . That it also stop specific oxide of smoothing iron and silicates intimate that it originally make in the internal Solar System before finding a new menage in the icy out reaches .
“ While there have been former reports of other ‘ irregular ’ Kuiper Belt Object spectra , none were confirmed to this stratum of character , ” said Olivier Hainaut , an astronomer from the European Southern Observatory ( ESO ) who was not part of the squad , in the statement .
“ The discovery of a carboniferous asteroid in the Kuiper Belt is a key verification of one of the fundamental predictions of dynamical models of the early Solar System . ”
