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Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech)
New planetoid named Sedna discovered
News story originally written on March 17, 2004
Astronomers have found a new object in our Solar System. The new object is
named Sedna. Astronomers are calling Sedna a "planetoid". A planetoid is
smaller than a planet but bigger than asteroids or comets.
Sedna is very far from the Sun. Pluto is the farthest planet from the Sun.
Sedna is more than twice as far away as Pluto. Sedna is 90 times as far from
the Sun as Earth!
Sedna is very, very cold because it is so far from the Sun. Sedna takes a
very long time to go around the Sun. One orbit takes
more than 10,000 years!
Sedna is so cold that scientists decided to name it after something from the
Arctic. Sedna is the name of the sea goddess in the myths of the Inuit people
who live near the North Pole.
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