Discoveries in the sky won’t necessarily be reflected on Gainesville’s streets.
According to a new study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, at least two dwarf planets exist in our solar system just beyond Pluto.
“If these dwarf planets exist, it is possible to not have found them before because they are small and very far from the sun,” Anthony Gonzalez, an associate professor of astronomy at UF, wrote in an email. “The fact that they are far from the sun would make their orbits very long.”
The discovery, made through calculations by scientists at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain and the University of Cambridge, explains the gravitational pull that is occurring on distant space rocks called extreme trans-Neptunian objects.
Despite the recent discovery, there most likely won’t be any additions to the Gainesville Solar Walk — although it remains a possibility.
Created in 2002 by artist Elizabeth Indianos, the Gainesville Solar Walk is a 4-billion-to-one scale of the solar system. However, there have only been minor changes made to the public art project that has lined Northwest Eighth Avenue for more than a decade.
Indianos said any addition to improve the accuracy of the Gainesville Solar Walk is something she is interested in.
“It was always something we were going to further expand and define,” Indianos said.
The project, created in collaboration with the Alachua Astronomy Club, initially cost $30,000.
With Pluto being relegated to “dwarf planet” status in 2006, there was talk that the statue of Pluto would be removed.
The club eventually decided that Pluto would remain in its place.
For now, the Solar Walk will remain as it is, entertaining and educating observers in Gainesville.
“We can argue and have a discourse in what category the planets fall in,” Indianos said. “The more complete, the better, and the more entertaining the Solar Walk is for the scientific community and for Gainesville.”
The last additions to the solar walk were in September 2008, when two Comet Halley structures, also constructed by Indianos, were added.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 1/21/2015 under the headline “New dwarf planets won’t change GNV Solar Walk art piece"]
