Scientists confirm the discovery of the most distant object in the solar system

In January 2018, scientists observing Beyond known objects in the solar system, we spotted something new: a small, seemingly bound object orbiting the Sun. Scientists nicknamed this point “ Farfarout ”, for its location far from the star – about four times farther than Pluto comes from the sun.

Now, after years of follow-up observations, we can finally confirm: Farfarout is in fact a planetoid, and the farthest object in the solar system.

HERE IS THE CONTEXT – Using the Subaru Telescope, an 8-meter telescope located atop the dormant Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, scientists have spotted the planetoid Farfarout.

A planetoid is a kind of hybrid, somewhere between a planet and an asteroid – a small piece of ice, rock, and dust orbiting the Sun.

Tracking observations of the object determined its orbit, confirming that it is the most distant known object in the solar system.

Of course, the latter object should not be confused with “Farout”, the former record holder for the most distant object in the solar system. Unfortunately for Farout, Farfarout is a lot further, located at the bottom of the Kuiper Belt.

The planetoid is located at a huge 132 astronomical units (AU) away from the sun. An astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, approximately 91,757 million miles.

For comparison, the dwarf planet Pluto is located 34 AU from the Sun.

WHAT’S UP – By tracking Farfarout’s movement around the Sun, the team of scientists were able to determine its orbit – and it’s certainly a doozy.

The object completes an orbit around the Sun in a thousand years.

At the furthest point in its orbit, Farfarout is 175 AU from the Sun. As it travels around the star, it loops a bit closer, eventually slipping even closer than the planet Neptune, just 27 AU away from the sun.

“A single orbit of Farfarout around the Sun takes a millennium,” said David Tholen, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute of Astronomy and a member of the team behind the discovery, in a report. communicated.

“Because of this long orbital period, it moves very slowly across the sky, requiring several years of observations to precisely determine its path.”

Due to its crossbreeding with Neptune, the scientists behind the discovery believe that Farfarout may have been at one point a much closer member of our planetary neighborhood. At some point in the past, Farfarout may have been ejected from the inner bosom of our system, to the outer realms of the solar system. This may have happened after the planetoid got too close to Neptune for comfort during the chaotic early years of the Solar System.

AND AFTER – The team of scientists will continue to observe Farfarout. One thing Farfarout needs, for example, is an official name (no, we can’t keep calling it that), which they’ll figure out after they get a better understanding of its orbit.

At the same time, Farfarout is raising the bar on the object farthest from the Sun – the scientists behind the discovery are also hoping to find more distant objects in the outer solar system. This will become more and more possible as our terrestrial telescopes continue to advance, allowing us to search for more distant worlds that share our host star.