Scientists have found a new world orbiting the solar system – more than 3 billion kilometres further away from the Sun than Pluto and 40 years away from Earth in a space shuttle.NASA is expected to announce today the discovery of the space object, which some experts believe could be a new planet. It is provisionally known as Sedna, after the Inuit goddess of the sea. The discovery of Sedna – 10 billion kilometres from Earth – is a testament to the new generation of high-powered telescopes. Measurements suggest Sedna's diameter is almost 2000km – the biggest find in the solar system since Pluto was discovered 74 years ago. It is believed to be made of ice and rock, and is slightly smaller than Pluto. The find will reignite the debate over what constitutes a planet. Some scientists claim even Pluto is too small to count as one. According to astronomer Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, who discovered Sedna, there could be many other new worlds orbiting the Sun and waiting to be discovered.

"Sedna is very big, and much further out than previous discoveries," he said. "I'm pretty sure there are other large bodies up there too." But physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies, of Sydney's Macquarie University, said it was folly to describe Sedna as a planet. "It's fun, it's exciting, but let's keep it in proportion," Professor Davies said yesterday. He said scientists had known for "a decade or so the solar system does not come to an abrupt halt" and there were a number of "planetessimals" or little planets, like Sedna.

View: Full Article | Source: The Australian

I knew this would happen. The question is.....where does an object cease to be a planetesimal, and become a planet ? This object is supposed to be around 2000kms in diameter. So what should we call the other object that was discovered recently.....the one that is around 1600kms in diameter ?

This is NOT a planet. Pluto is NOT a planet. These two (and hundreds of other bodies that have been discovered in the last decade) are just members of the Kuiper Belt. They cannot be classed as planets. They SHOULD NOT be classed as planets.

A planet would be large enough to sweep a part of the Solar System clear of other objects......other KUIPER BELT objects. None of these objects (including Pluto) have the mass (and therefore the gravitational force) necessary to do this. It's about time that Pluto was accepted as "just another Kuiper Belt object".

next stop annunaki

I need to correct something that I stated above. Apparently, Sedna is NOT a member of the Kuiper Belt. It appears to be the first detected member of the Inner Oort Cloud.