Most distant object in Solar System has far-out nickname
The object lies about 140 times farther away from the Sun than Earth does
Astronomers have discovered the most distant object in our Solar System and nicknamed it 'FarFarOut'. While there is very little information available about this faint object so far, scientists say it lies about 140 times farther away from the Sun than Earth does.
FarFarOut was discovered by Dr Scott Sheppard who spotted the object when analysing some scientific data after his lecture was postponed by 24 hours due to heavy snowfall in Washington DC.
"This is hot off the presses," Sheppard said during his rescheduled talk on 21st February.
Sheppard works as an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC.
He revealed that FarFarOut lies far beyond 'FarOut' - the dwarf planet that in December was announced to be most distant object spotted in the Solar System. Sheppard and his teammates discovered FarOut (officially named 2018 VG18) accidentally, when they were searching for the signs of proof for the hypothesised ninth planet, 'Planet X', beyond Pluto.
FarOut is pinkish and round and likely about 500 km wide. It is 120 times further from the Sun than Earth is. The previous record-holder was the dwarf planet Eris, which is 96 Astronomical Units (one AU is the distance between the Sun and Earth) from the Sun.
For the past decade, Sheppard and his teammates - Dave Tholen at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and Chad Trujillo at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff - have observed the night sky using multiple high-powered telescopes, including the Subaru 8-metre in Hawaii and the Blanco 4-metre in Chile.
They discovered several new objects located more than 9 billion kilometres from the Sun. They spotted a faraway dwarf planet in October, which they nicknamed 'The Goblin'.
Currently, the team has very little details about FarOut and FarFarOut, and believe it could take many more years of study to reveal the secrets of these two objects.
FarOut moves so slowly that it will take a few years for astronomers to precisely determine its orbit. At such a great distance from the Sun, the dwarf planet could take more than 1,000 Earth years to complete a single rotation around the Sun.
"There are a lot of exotic and extreme objects yet to be found in the outer solar system," Sheppard said last year.
"We are only just now uncovering what the very outer solar system might look like and what might be out there."