Pink Dwarf Planet Nicknamed After Vice President Joe Biden Found Beyond Pluto
A new discovery in the solar system has trumped long-accepted theories about the solar system and its edge.
A pink dwarf planet was recently discovered beyond the edge of the solar system in an area originally described as a celestial wasteland. The planet's name is short-termed 2012 VP113 and, because of its initials, it is also known as "Biden."
Biden currently stands as the third farthest object in the solar system. This discovery dispels the once accepted theory that the dwarf planet of Pluto is furthest from the sun.
The pink planetoid is measured at 280 miles and thought to be made up of ice and rock. Due to its initial make-up, Biden's temperature is quite frigid at around minus 430 degrees Fahrenheit. Its color may be the result of the Sun's radiation on its ice, methane, and carbon dioxide surface. The distant planet is said to take about 4,000 years to complete one full orbit.
Prior to the Biden discovery, the only dwarf planet discovered beyond the solar system's edge was Sedna. Sedna is named after the mythological Inuit goddess who created the sea creatures of the Arctic.
"Sedna is not a freak," David Rabinowitz, one of Sedna's founders, said. "We can have confidence that there is a new population to explore."
Biden's founders are Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. and Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii. The pair tracked the pink planet by using a new camera on a ground telescope in Chile.
"These objects are not unique. There's a huge number out there," according to Sheppard.
With this new discovery comes further investigation and research into the space beyond our solar system. Scientists will continue to research more objects in an effort to learn how the dwarf planets and the planets of the solar system formed and evolved.