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An Extreme Cousin for Pluto? Possible Dwarf Planet Discovered at Solar System’s Edge

A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO) at the edge of our solar system. The TNO is potentially large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, the same category as the much more well-known Pluto. The discovery has significant implications for our understanding of the Kuiper Belt and hypotheses that surround the existence of Planet Nine.

Beyond Boltzmann

Why do collisionless plasmas like the solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles that flows away from the Sun, exhibit a universal "non-thermal tail"? Uddipan Banik, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has proposed a fundamental, first-principles explanation for this phenomenon.