A planetary body has been discovered by scientists on the edge of our solar system, and they have given it the name of DeeDee, also known as Distant Dwarf.
The planet was found in late 2016, but not much was known about the physical structure of it. Now scientists have new data, which is taken from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. This new data reveals more details about the true identity of the object and scientists have discovered that it is actually larger than what they expected it to be.
DEEDEE IS SECOND MOST DISTANT TRANS-NEPTUNIAN OBJECT
The data suggests that DeeDee is two-thirds the size of the dwarf planet Ceres, this is the biggest planet in our asteroid belt and has mass large enough to make it spherical. DeeDee has the criteria needed to be called a dwarf planet too; however, it hasn’t been given that as an official label just yet.
DeeDee is located around 92 astronomical units away from the sun, on the edge of our Solar System, which makes it around 137 billion kilometers in space language. The planet is so far out that it would take 13 hours for any light from DeeDee to make its way to Earth. This means that is the second most distant known trans-Neptunian object, and it has an orbit that is only second to the dwarf planet Eris.
The orbit of DeeDee is so big that it would take around 1,100 years to make a single lap of the sun and scientists say that the discovery of it tells them that there is still a lot to learn in regards to objects that are lurking in the depths of our Solar System.
Lead researcher David Gerdes said that way beyond Pluto there is a region that is very rich with planetary bodies. He went on to say that some of them are small and others have a size that would rival that of Pluto and maybe even much bigger.
DEEDEE IS REMNANT FROM OUR PLANETARY SYSTEM
Scientists agree that objects like DeeDee are created from remnants from the creation of our planetary system, and they are hoping to gain more insight into when and how they were made. This would help them to solve a mystery that is long standing, how planets are actually formed in our Solar System, including Earth.
DeeDee was first seen through the Blanco telescope in Chile as a part of the Dark Energy Survey which revealed over 15,000 images and which brought to light over 1.1 billion objects, many of them turned out to be distant galaxies or stars. Just a very small fraction of the objects actually turned out to be of any interest in our Solar System.
Scientists were able to confirm the size of DeeDee was uncommonly big using the heat signature of the planet. They said that it reflected just 13% of the sunlight that managed to reach it and likened this to DeeDee being as bright as a candle which had been placed halfway to the Moon.
DeeDee only goes to confirm that modern technology of today is at last capable of finding slow moving and very distant objects right on the edge of our Solar System. These technologies may be able to help scientists and astronomers locate Planet Nine, which at the moment is just a hypothesis, which has been said to be in orbit past DeeDee and Eris.
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