b l o g o f p a r a g

New member of the family

Mike Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech is one of the researchers that announced the discovery of tenth planet in the solar system. The other researchers are Chad Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, New Haven, Conn. They made the discovery in January after re-analyzing data collected over two years and it was announced to the public late last week. The new planet called, 2003UB313, is at least twice the size of Pluto and currently is 97 times further from the sun than the Earth (97 AU).

"It will be visible with a telescope over the next six months and is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in the constellation Cetus," said Brown..

Brown is also the proud father of 23 day old baby, Lilah. Congratulations to Mike on both the counts.

Update: Many astronomers speculate that numerous other icy objects larger than Pluto likely exist in the Kuiper Belt of the far distant Solar System. If so, and if some are found closer in than 2003 UB313, it may be premature to call 2003 UB313 the tenth planet.