What is it? An "ice dwarf", apparently, and, according to its discoverers, Mike Brown and Chad Trujilo of the California Institute of Technology, Quaoar (and Pluto) should be referred to as "Kuiper-belt objects". The Kuiper belt is like a second asteroid belt, but while most asteroids orbit between Mars and Jupiter the Kuiper belt is at the icy fringes of the solar system, far beyond the eighth planet, Neptune.
Read more about it here http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/07/1033538894512.html
what about planet X. Scientists belive there is another planet which in relation to the earath and our orbit is always blocked from view by the sun as it orbits in an almost exact opposite ellipsis to ours. I am not makning this up by the way. Planet X is what scientists call it becasue it is a new and supposedly unknown planet so they caled it X because they thought it a befitting name.
@Pegasus- A small ball of ice doesn't have the energy to sustain life, organisms need energy which Quaoar doesn't have. (BTW Europa, although icy on the outside, might have life because of the thermal energy created by Jupiter's gravitational pull)
@Woody- I haven't ever heard of anything like that, but I doubt that's true, too unlikely for a planet to have the same orbital period as Earth. BTW Planet X was supposed to be the tenth planet (hence X, roman numeral for 10), however, it was supposed to be a body past Pluto, altering the eccentricity of Neptune's orbit, until astronomers recalculated the orbit and realized they had gotten it wrong.
@ Pegasus how come you are focusing on Qoaoar? Is it because there is ice and you think where there is water there is life? What about all of the other trans Neptunian objects like Varuna, Orcus, Sedna, El61, FY9, Eris and indeed Pluto.
That is one of the many reasons I have, but there could be life out there and this is the way to find it. You have to look and see for other planets. If there is ice, that means there could be water. So there is a possiblity of life on the planets.
@ Pegasus- Pluto is not Planet X, I said it before; Planet X would have been the tenth planet from the sun, before being demoted, Pluto was the ninth. What are your other reasons for suspecting Quaoar has life? Its too cold to have life, life needs energy which Quaoar doesn't have.
well you don't know.If there was life on other planets, who's to say they even need water, or sunlight for that matter.In my oppinion there could be life on any given planet.The appropriate term though would be Intelligent Life Forms.The reason for this is because they found samples of bacteria on Mars I think.Just don't quote me on it though.
Well, one of Jupiter's moons europa Has a crusty layer of ice, then water and according to studys there are organisms under the ice! So, give it a few 100,000 years and you got yourself a fish or what ever those organisms have adapted to. (I have said this in a thread before.)
@Crimsonblade. 1. reproduction 2. growth and/or differentiation through metabolism (which usually implies some form of respiration) 3. adaptation to the environment 4. the ability to distort entropy--that is, to increase or maintain the organization of the living system at the expense of the environment taken from: [url]http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071229125507AAQV56o[/url] (I know it could be from any random person, but it is correct)
Now this also includes the need for food, water and energy. Food can be anything such as other cells. Water is just water, and energy can be narrowed down to as sunlight. Therefore, for anything to sustain life, water and sunlight are needed.