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Technovelgy: Massive Planetoids From Beyond the Solar System
By Bill Christensen
posted: 28 January 2005
09:23 am ET
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New calculations reveal that
large planetoids may have formed hundreds of times farther from the Sun than
previously thought. One such object, Sedna, discovered in 2003, is close to the
size of the outermost planet, Pluto.
Alan Stern, director of space studies at the
Southwest Research Institute, suggests that Sedna may have formed at its current
distance, or even further out. Sedna has a highly elliptical orbit; at its
furthest, Sedna will be about 940 times further from the Sun than the Earth (940
AU). Stern says Sedna may have been born in a circular orbit at about 500 AU;
it's current elliptical orbit is probably the result of a close encounter with a
passing star or another large body in orbit around the Sun.
Stern's work is the latest in a series of
speculations by scientists to try to explain the find. Some believe that Sedna
is a Kuiper Belt object (formed within the orbit of Neptune); others believe
that Sedna is an inner Oort cloud object. Scientists have also advanced the
theory that Sedna was not created in this solar system at all, but was pulled
from a passing star early in the formation of the solar system.
Sedna, we're glad we met ya! Hey, it's
easier to pronounce than that
other space rock's name,
Quaoar. Oh yeah, that just rolls off the
tongue. |
The idea of a planet that passes from star to star
has also been explored in science fiction. In his excellent 1977 novel Dying
of the Light, George R.R. Martin writes
about a world named Worlorn, a rogue planet discovered by the race of Man in the
distant future. When the path of the object was plotted, it was clear that it
would make a single close approach to the Hellcrown, a multiple star system.
Fifty standard years of sunlight would briefly warm this wandering world, the
venue for the greatest festival ever held...
There was a century of storms as Worlorn
neared the light: years of melting ice and volcanic activity and earthquakes.
A frozen atomosphere came, bit by bit, to life and hideous winds howled like
monster infants. All this the outworlders faced and fought.
The terraformers came from Tober-in-the-Veil, the
weather wardens from Darkdawn... The men of High Kavalaan supervised it all,
since High Kavalaan claimed the rogue... At last Worlorn was gentled. Then
cities rose, and strange forests flowered ... and animals were set loose to
give the planet life.
In ai-589 the Festival of the Fringe opened.. On
that first day the Toberians let their stratoshield shimmer, so the clouds and
the sunlight ran and swirled in kaleidoscope patterns. Other days followed,
and the ships came...
(From Dying of the Light)
Martin creates a great story of lost love and
changing cultures in the novel; it also contains lots of original technology,
like the sky-scoots (anti-gravity
flying carpets) and High Kavalaan aircars. Dying of the
Light was reissued last year in paperback, and I highly recommend it.
Read more about new work on Sedna at Solar system planetoids could be really far
out; read more about Sedna at Space.com. See Stay star may have jolted
Sedna for alternative views on the formation
of distant planetoids.
(This Science Fiction in the News story used
with permission from Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction.)
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