AS scientific goof-ups go, there have been worse. But it has added an element of suspense to the debate about whether the newly discovered 鈥�10th planet鈥� beyond Pluto is really a planet at all. It turns out that astronomers failed to aim NASA鈥檚 infrared telescope at 2003 UB313 correctly, so the object could be even bigger than their estimates suggest.
The Spitzer Space Telescope did not spot any infrared radiation emanating from what was thought to be the direction of 2003 UB313. Given the object鈥檚 distance and the telescope鈥檚 sensitivity, this led Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to estimate its maximum diameter to be about 3000 kilometres.
But Brown, who discovered the object, has now learned that the telescope was looking at the wrong place in the sky. 鈥淭hose observations failed due to human error, which caused the telescope to point in the wrong direction,鈥� Brown writes on his website (). Brown will attempt another observation of 2003 UB313 later this month.
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