Quaoar: Large Asteroid in the Outer Solar System
Explanation:
Asteroids almost as large as planets are still
being discovered in our own
Solar System.
Recently an
asteroid more than half the size of
Pluto was found orbiting at a
distance only a little
further than the
Solar System's most distant planet.
The large
asteroid moves relative to background stars in the
discovery images shown above taken by the
Oschin Telescope at
Palomar,
California,
USA.
Quaoar, the name suggested for the space rock by its discoverers,
is one of several
large asteroids
discovered recently that
roam in the distant
Kuiper Belt.
Quaoar's size was
resolved by images from the
Hubble Space Telescope.
Quaoar is likely a
cold world covered in ice from which the
Sun appears
only as a particularly bright star.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
