What you may not have realised is that York played a key part in that discovery.
It was astronomers at the Flagstaff observatory in Arizona who took the first photographs of the tiny planet – which has, since 2006, been reclassified as a ‘dwarf planet’ because it is so small.
They were using a small 13-inch telescope - with a lens made by Thomas Cooke & Sons right here in York.
It’s a discovery that has delighted astronomer Martin Lunn, who for many years was curator of astronomy at the Yorkshire Museum.
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