Strange hourglass-shaped object seen orbiting the Sun

Source: Dateline Zero 

A bizarre, hourglass-shaped object “spins round like a propeller” is currently orbiting the Sun, according to an astronomer from Queens University Belfast. The finding was presented by Dr. Pedro Lacerda at the Joint Meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the Division for Planetary Sciences in Nantes, France, on 3 October 2011.

The spinning object is tilted at nearly 90 degrees to the ecliptic plane, and is traveling alongside the thousands of icy, rocky worlds — including Pluto, the former ninth planet — that make up the Kuiper belt. Dr. Pedro Lacerda and colleagues at the University of Belfast believe that the “hourglass” space is made up of two distinct objects, orbiting around each other, eventually touching, according to Inovacaotecnologica.combr.

The celestial body is an “object of the Kuiper Belt,” a member of a wide range of rocks of different sizes orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. It’s been labeled Kuiper belt object 2001QG298.

Scientists believe the Kuiper Belt objects are fossils — the best preserved of the origin of the Solar System.

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