Now this is something you don’t hear every day.
Or week.
Or year.
Or…
Astronomers using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found a distant object in the direction of Alpha Centauri. The object appears to be in the outer region of our solar system, and depending on its distance could be a hypothesized ” super-Earth.”
ALMA is capable of precise observations at short microwave wavelengths, typically emitted by cold gas and dust. But objects on the edge of our solar system also emit light in this range, and would be too cool and distant to be observed by infrared telescopes. In 2014, ALMA found a faint object in the direction of Alpha Centauri A and B. The object was again observed in May of this year, this time more clearly the object is most likely part of the solar system, in prograde motion, albeit at a distance too far to be detectable at other wavelengths,.
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