A name
As planet names are taken from mythology and are getting increasingly obscure the more lumps of rock we find out there, how about recent or alternative mythology?
I propose Nuggan as the name of the new world.
Astroboffins are excited about a newly-discovered dwarf planet, despite not knowing what it looks like. The discovery of 2015 RR245 comes from the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS), which back in March spotted alignments in Kuiper Belt Objects that fuelled the controversial “planet X” theory. The new object has so …
"So far, the researchers have worked out that the planet's orbit takes it more than 120 Earth-orbits away from the Sun"
And from elsewhere, I've read something to the effect that it might come as close as 34 AU.
34 AU = (approx) 5,100 million kilometres.
120 AU = (approx) 18.000 million kilometres.
I think there's a good chance that, when its orbit is more accurately known, its semi-major axis might be in the 11,580 million kilometre ballpark. Those numbers certainly suggest that area.
Okay, if you insist!
The figure I came up with (six months ago in the linked post, but I may have mentioned it before then) comes from Titius-Bode, as applied to the semi-major axis.
Mercury - 0.4AU
Venus - 0.7AU
Earth - 1.0AU
Mars - 1.6AU
Asteroid belt - 2.8AU
Jupiter - 5.2AU
Saturn - 10AU
Uranus - 19.6AU
Neptune - N/A
Pluto - 38.8AU
? - 77.2AU
The actual semi-major axis varies from the figure predicted by the sequence but only by comparatively small amounts - the Universe, or even just the Solar System, has had "a few years" to mess up the numbers in any number of ways. One of those ways might also be Neptune, which I've marked as N/A because this only works if it shouldn't be there. I therefore contend it might be an exoplanet that was captured by the Sun's gravity.
So to the question mark position and this newly discovered dwarf planet.
77.2AU is 11,580 million kilometres (using a rounded 150 million for 1AU).
The new dwarf planet's suggested max distance from the sun is 120AU, and its suggested minimum is 34AU. Looking at that very simply (i.e. on the basis that it's furthest point will be on the opposite side of the Sun to the nearest point, so the major axis should be the two added together) gives a major axis of 154 AU - and therefore a semi-major axis of 77 AU (or 11,550 million KM).
It'll probably be quite a while before the actual figures are known and confirmed.
Edit: When I commented this morning, I just quickly estimated the semi-major axis. Now that I've used a calculator, the result is much closer than I estimated!
2015 RR245 will be closer to Earth than Pluto years before the moment of closest approach to the Sun. We'll be able to send probes there within the next 5-10 decades.
Finding an unexpectedly high amount of largish dwarf planets is a boon for humanity. We may eventually reach a point in technological development where we could live indefinitely on places like Ceres, Europa, Pluto, Sedna, or 2015 RR245. If Planet Nine exists, it will probably have some satellites we could live on as well.
"I don't want to live on a small. cold rock," you protest. Well, maybe it won't be choice. Just kidding, it really depends on the commute times between Earth/Mars and these distant objects. If 15+ year travel times could be cut to months or weeks, it would be much more tolerable and comparable to crossing the Atlantic or circumnavigating the globe centuries ago.