 "The tenth planet," better known as Planet X or 2001-KX76 was discovered in 2001 by astronomers from Lowell Observatory - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This happened on May 22, a team was going over digital images taken by the Blanco Telescope.* This planet or mass is roughly the same size as Charon, one of Jupiter's bigest moons. To give you and idea on how big we are talking about imagine a world that is three to four times the size of Earth. This mass is made up of mostly ice and is only one of over 200 such masses found in the Kuiper Belt which was first brought to light in the 1980's. The belt, which is found beyond Neptune, is believe to be left over remains from when our own solar system was created. The masses, comets, and asteroids found in this belt rotate around the sun, just like the other nine planets. Their orbit tends to be slightly off by a degree or two. "Ixion's" rotation around the sun takes around 250 years, so scientist yet to see it�s full glory of orbit.** To Be Continued ~ Paused due to a 1 1/2 year old. *National Optical Astronomy Observatory **Centaur Research Center
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