[新闻] 哈勃发现迄今最小、最暗的柯依伯带天体

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0308467

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Sees Farthest, Faintest, Solar System Objects  
Yet Found  
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered three of the  
faintest and smallest objects ever detected beyond Neptune. Each object is a  
lump of ice and rock -- roughly the size of Philadelphia -- orbiting beyond  
Neptune and Pluto,  
where the icy bodies may have dwelled since the formation of the solar system  
4.5 billion years ago. They reside in a ring-shaped region called the Kuiper  
Belt, which houses a swarm of icy rocks that are leftover building blocks, or  
"planetesimals,"  
from the solar system's creation.

呵呵。人丁兴旺了。