Far out cosmology: solar system larger than known (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, October 09, 2023, 17:35 (201 days ago) @ David Turell

The New Horizons Probe has helped in this discovery:

https://www.sciencealert.com/distant-objects-show-solar-system-extends-further-than-we-...

"Decades of peering into the shadows have left astronomers with the distinct impression that the diffuse field of icy boulders known as the Kuiper Belt suddenly thins out from 48 times the distance between Earth and the Sun (or 48 AU).

"Belts of rubble have been seen extending for at least twice that distance around comparable stars, making our Solar System rather petite by comparison. With this new discovery, we might not be so unusual after all.

"A team of astronomers led by Canada's Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre had hoped to uncover new targets for the New Horizons Probe to investigate as it journeyed through the Solar System's outer reaches.

"Having given us a few close-ups of Pluto, the mission snapped pics of a snowman-shaped rock roughly 40 AU from the Sun, before continuing on its merry way at a speed of just under 60,000 kilometers (about 36,000 miles) per hour.

***

"...the research team made use of machine learning, training a neural network on made-up objects inserted into telescope imagery before setting it loose on data collected using the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii in 2020 and 2021.

"Compared with a human search through the 2020 data, the machine learning technique identified twice as many Kuiper Belt Objects, suggesting a distinct rise in the density of material at a distance of around 60 to 80 AU along New Horizons' trajectory.

***

'The study's results are yet to be peer-reviewed, and would then need to be confirmed by future ground- and space-based surveys.

"Yet taken at face value, it's possible our Solar System has at least two 'rings' of icy material divided by a gap at around 50 AU; one consisting of the familiar Kuiper Belt, the other a wide stretch of icy boulders reaching as far from Pluto as Pluto is from us."

Comment: not surprising there is a thin outer layer of rings.