Posted: Sun, Mar 14, 2004, 3:15 PM ET (2015 GMT)
NASA is scheduled to announced Monday the discovery of a distant Kuiper Belt object (KBO) nearly as large as the planet Pluto, an Australian newspaper reported Sunday. An article in The Australian revealed that astronomers had found an object provisionally called Sedna — the Inuit goddess of the sea — orbiting the Sun at a distance of ten billion kilometers. Observations suggest the object may be 2,000 kilometers in diameter, which would make it not only the largest KBO but nearly as large as the planet Pluto. NASA announced Friday that it would hold a press conference Monday at 1 pm EST (1800 GMT) to discuss what it called an "unusual solar object" that was the most distant body found to date orbiting the Sun, but offered no other details. While The Australian article offered no details regarding how the object was discovered, the NASA announcement of the press conference includes links (not yet activated) to the web site of the Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared observatory launched last year.

Related Links:

•  The Australian article
•  NASA announcement of press conference