Here's looking at you, Earth
Posted on: Tuesday, 16 March 2004, 06:00 CST
Have you ever had the feeling you're being watched? No wonder, given this latest picture from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit.
This is the first picture of Earth taken from another planet.
Meanwhile, American scientists say they have found a new "planet" in our solar system. A 10th heavenly body has been spotted orbiting the Earth.
After sightings by the Hubble Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, Nasa was expected to unveil its latest find.
Announcing the finding of "a mysterious object", Nasa said it would present the "discovery of the most distant object ever detected orbiting the Sun".
The find was made by Dr Michael Brown, associate professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, Nasa said, adding that the discovery came during a Nasa- funded research project.
The object has been named Sedna after the Inuit goddess of the ocean. It is believed to be about 1,250 miles across, but may even be larger than the furthest known planet Pluto, which is 1,406 miles across and was discovered in 1930.
Scientists believe it is 6.2 billion miles from Earth in a region of space known as the Kuiper Belt.
Whether the discovery can actually be called a planet is likely to be debated by astrophysicists for months or even years. Many bodies of rock and ice exist in the region and there is still argument over whether Pluto is a real planet.
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User Comments (1)
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Posted by henry on 02/25/2007, 16:00 you do not show th e picture so where is it |
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