At a staggering distance from the Sun, a team of astronomers from the Carnegie Institute for Science has just found what could be the most distant object ever discovered in the solar system. It remains to be defined, but its distance orbiting the Sun at 140 astronomical units (AU) places it 3.5 times farther than Pluto. Very far. Hence the nickname ‘FarFarOut’, as its predecessor, a dwarf planet discovered last year in orbit at 120 AU, was previously nicknamed FarOut. So naturally the new object is FarFarOut.
The discovery was made by astronomer Scott Sheppard, who is leading the search for the mysterious Planet X that remains elusive, but in the meantime, they are finding many other interesting things. Like this object or the discovery of 12 previously invisible moons orbiting the great planet Jupiter.
For most people, snow days are not very productive. However, some people use the time to discover the most distant object in the solar system. That’s what Sheppard did when a snowstorm closed down town. He began to examine data and voilà , there it was: a faint object 140 times farther from the Sun than Earth, the farthest known solar system object.
This tiny object is more than 20 billion kilometers from the Sun, and because it is so far away, we know very little about F arFarOut, but the team is already planning a further observation of the mysterious object so that we can learn more about it.
Discovering these incredibly distant objects is an excellent achievement in itself, but understanding them will be really helpful in the search for Planet X, which is believed to be outside the range of 200 Astronomical Units.
As we already saw with the dwarf planet The Goblin (‘The Goblin’), since the orbits of these distant objects can be influenced by the hypothetical planet X, they could serve as a signal to discover where it could be. “These distant objects are like breadcrumbs that take us to Planet X,” Sheppard said.
“The more we can find, the better we can understand the outer solar system and the possible planet we think is shaping its orbits – a discovery that will redefine our understanding of the evolution of the solar system,” Sheppard continues.
Like Farout, the orbit of FarFarOut is not yet unknown. Until then, we don’t know if it will stay far enough away from the rest of the solar system to be free from the gravitational tug of the giant planets. If it does, it would fit the projections of the possible orbit of Planet X.
The truth is that it will take several years to determine the orbits of Farout and FarFarOut, and if they will provide more clues to the elusive planet. Meanwhile, the observations continue.
Referencia: Science Magazine. DOI: doi:10.1126/science.aax1154
