Canary Island astronomers find 40,000 'mini-planets' in Solar System
Canary Island astronomers find 40,000 'mini-planets' in Solar System
SPANISH astronomers have found what appear to be 40,000 small planets in the Solar System, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
They are part of a team of star-gazers from all over Europe, and are based at the Canary Island Astrophysics Institute (IAC).
Although the Solar System comprises millions of small astral bodies, ranging from rocky asteroids to comets made from ice particles - of which the ESA has already studied the orbits of around 700,000, this is the first time they have been able to document the position and light of 40,000 of them, and the colour of at least 35,000.
These data are highly-valuable in working out their composition and being able to classify them-
IAC researcher and one of the main team players in the project, Javier Licandro, says these 40,000 small planets will also provide information about groups of asteroids formed through the collision of larger ones, known as 'father asteroids', with smaller ones - effectively, the way these rocky comet-like objects 'breed'.
It will also enable the group to work out where an asteroid or comet has different or unusual matter or chemical composition - such as the basalt Type V asteroids which are made up of similar material to Vesta, the object with the second-greatest mass in the Solar System's 'asteroid belt'.
Weirdly - for the layperson, at least - these asteroids are made up of volcanic material, and if their origin can be traced, it may reveal the presence of volcanoes on other planets.
And the 'Fauna' variety of asteroids includes examples of all known types including asteroids close to Earth; Mars Crossers - which, literally, cross Mars' orbit - Hungaria, Cibeles, Hilda, Trojan, comets, and objects from the main asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt, among numerous others.
Researchers have compiled data from the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), based at the European Space Observatory (ESO), which collects data on small objects floating around the Solar System within the near infrared range.
VISTA is the largest rover telescope on earth, with a 4.1-metre diameter mirror, sensitive detectors and a very wide-ranging lens, enabling it to take very close-up, detailed shots of space matter, even those in movement.
The telescope allows astrophysicists to catalogue a huge number of celestial bodies very quickly and analyse statistics relating to them.
During the research, known as the VISTA Hemisphere Survey, VISTA was able to view around 40% of the sky's southern hemisphere within the Solar System, says Licandro.
