{"id":19386,"date":"2016-05-12T17:59:23","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T09:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/dwarfy-mcplanetface-the-icy-world-known-as-2007-or10-cries-out-for-a-name\/"},"modified":"2016-05-12T17:59:23","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T09:59:23","slug":"dwarfy-mcplanetface-the-icy-world-known-as-2007-or10-cries-out-for-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/dwarfy-mcplanetface-the-icy-world-known-as-2007-or10-cries-out-for-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Dwarfy McPlanetface? The icy world known as 2007 OR10 cries out for a name"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image:
An illustration lines up the solar system\u2019s four largest dwarf planets, with 2007 OR10 in the middle of the pack. (Credit: Andras Pal \/ Konkoly Observatory, Ivan Eder \/ Hungarian Astronomical Association, NASA \/ JHUAPL \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Observations made by NASA\u2019s Kepler space telescope suggest that the icy world known as 2007 OR10 is bigger than astronomers thought \u2013and that\u2019s adding to the pressure to give the probable dwarf planet an official name, nine years after its discovery.<\/p>\n

Some of the suggestions pick up on the recent controversy over a British ship-naming contest in which Boaty McBoatface emerged as the overwhelming favorite. So how about Dwarfplanety McDwarfplanetface, or Plutoid McPlutoface?<\/p>\n

The cause of all this mirth is a research paper in the Astronomical Journal that provides a new size estimate for 2007 OR10, which lies far out in the Kuiper Belt, the broad ring of icy material just beyond Neptune. The object traces an eccentric orbit that takes 547.51 Earth years to complete, and ranges as far out as 66.9 times Earth\u2019s distance from the sun (6.2 billion miles).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to make out the object from that distance. Based on data from the European Space Agency\u2019s Herschel space observatory, scientists had previously estimated its diameter at about 795 miles. But when Kepler\u2019s readings were added in, the estimate rose to 955 miles.<\/p>\n