Astronomers have spotted the farthest known object in our solar system — and they’ve nicknamed the pink cosmic body “Farout.”
The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the discovery Monday.
“Farout” is about 120 astronomical units away, which is 120 times the distance between Earth and the sun, or 18 billion kilometres. The previous record-holder was the dwarf planet Eris at 96 astronomical units.
Solar system distances to scale showing the newly discovered 2018 VG18 ‘Farout’ compared to other known solar system objects. (Roberto Molar Candanosa/Scott S. Sheppard/Carnegie Institution for Science)
The Carnegie Institution’s Scott Sheppard says the object is so far away and moving so slowly it will take a few years to determine its orbit. At that distance, it could take more than 1,000 years to orbit the sun.
The astronomers spied the dwarf planet in November using a telescope in Hawaii.
It’s an estimated 500 kilometres across.
Discovery images of 2018 VG18 ‘Farout’ from the Subaru Telescope on Nov. 10, 2018. Farout moves between the two discovery images while the background stars and galaxies do not move over the one hour between images. (Scott S. Sheppard/David Tholen)