Move Over, Farout: FarFarOut has been discovered



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• Farfarout is a tiny object at 140 AU (one UA is the distance between the Earth and the sun).

• The previous known object furthest from our solar system, simply called Farout, was only 120 AU from here.

• Farfarout's orbit could reveal secrets of the outer solar system, including the existence of an unknown unknown planet.


The universe surprises even its most ardent observers.

Scott Sheppard, astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC, was to lecture on what was the farthest object from the solar system. And then, just one day before his interview, he discovered another.

Shepard said on February 21: "Yesterday it snowed and I had nothing to do, so I went through some of our data." And then, aha.

The newly discovered object is called, appropriately, Farfarout. He replaces Farout as the best-known object of our solar system. The previous record holder was circling the sun at about 120 AU (one astronomical unit, or astronomical unit, is the distance between the Earth and the sun). Farfarout is 140 AU.

Objects at this distance are in the Kuiper Belt and are known as Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO). The closest familiar object to FarFarOut is Pluto, which is vast in comparison. Pluto is 1,400 miles (2,380 km) wide, while FarFarOut is composed of two lobes, each 6 to 9 miles (10-15) wide.

"These are basically the remnants of the planet's formation," said Shepard in his new presentation. "The object probably tells us a lot about the formation of the planet." Small objects gather together to form larger objects over time.This is a process of training frozen on square."

Objects like FarFarOut are more than trivial answers. They can hint at something bigger looming at the end of the solar system. Shepard and his team have no idea what FarFarOut's orbit looks like. But it is possible that the orbit is influenced by a planet still supposed, Planet X or Planet X, a larger body hidden by the distant cloud of Oort. which is beyond the Kuiper belt.

Shepard has been researching Planet Nine for years. It will still take some time to understand what's wrong with FarFarOut: Shepard estimates that it will take 20 months to get all the necessary data on the subject. Who knows what he will find from here to here and now.

Maybe Farfarfarout?

Source: The Guardian

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