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Washington, D.C.—The Solar System has a new most-distant member, bringing its outer frontier into focus.

New work from Carnegie’s Scott Sheppard and Chadwick Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory reports the discovery of a distant dwarf planet, called 2012 VP113, which was found beyond the known edge of the Solar System. This is likely one of thousands of distant objects that are thought to form the so-called inner Oort cloud. What’s more, their work indicates the potential presence of an enormous planet, perhaps up to 10 times the size of Earth, not yet seen, but possibly influencing the orbit of 2012 VP113, as well as other inner Oort cloud objects. (more…)

‘We may be able to watch dark energy turn on’: U-M involved in unprecedented sky survey

By Guest PostSeptember 6, 2013Sciencealbert einstein, astronomical observatory, cerro tololo, Chile, chris miller, cosmic scales, cosmological constant, cosmos, dark energy camera, dark energy survey, dark matter, david gerdes, earth, empty space, energy density, evolution, expansion, galaxy cluster, general relativity, mysterious force, reidar hahn, sky, tim mckay, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — Moonless nights outside the Cerro Tololo astronomical observatory in Chile are so dark that when you look down, you can’t see your feet.

“You can’t see your hands,” said David Gerdes, physics professor at the University of Michigan. “But you can hold them up to the sky and see a hand-shaped hole with no stars in it. It’s really incredible.”

From this site in the Andes over the next five years, an international team will map one-eighth of the sky in unprecedented detail—aiming to make a time lapse of the past 8 billion years of a slice of the universe. Through the Dark Energy Survey, which began Aug. 31, more than 200 researchers from 25 institutions, including U-M, will search for answers to a fundamental question about the cosmos: Why is its expansion speeding up? (more…)

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Solar System’s Edge Redefined

‘We may be able to watch dark energy turn on’: U-M involved in unprecedented sky survey