FarFarOut – the new farthest object in the Solar System
An international team of astronomers has announced the discovery of the farthest object in the Solar System. The object has been named FarFarOut and is located as far as 140 astronomical units from the Sun – that’s 3.5 times farther than Pluto.
Technological advances make the observational abilities of astronomersow are growing at a rapid pace. Last December, scientists reported on the Solar System’s farthest object, whichory managed to observe in an orbit located 120 astronomical units from the Sun (Astronomical Unit. 1 AU is approximately the distance between the Earth and the Sun, approx. 150 millionoin kilometerow). Not two months have passed and scientists report that they have spotted an even farther away object.
A new object has been discovered in the distant corners of our solar system and has been named FarFarOut. It is located as far as 140 AU from the Sun. If its discovery is confirmed, it will become the farthest known object in our solar system.
The current record holder – a dwarf planet with a diameter of about 500 kilometersoin named FarOut – was noticed by the same group of scientistsow. Zarowno FarOut, as well as FarFarOut, were discovered as part of the search for a very distant objectoin the solar system, including the suspected Planet X.
Strange orbits of similarly distant objectoin led astronomow to hypothesize that they may be affected by a huge planet located on the outer edges of our solar system. Last month, another concept was proposed, according to whichorej for the peculiar orbit is responsible not for one large object, but a number of smaller ones connected by gravitational force. Read more about it in the text: Strange orbits objectow at the edges of the solar system are not caused by the Ninth Planet?
The FarFarOut facility was discovered quite unexpectedly. Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., admitted that he took charge of analyzing the data because, due to the poor conditions of theoin atmospheric cancelled his lecture. It was then that he spotted a distant object.
– The snow had fallen and I had nothing to do, so I reviewed some of theore from our data – said Sheppard. – The object is very faintly visible. At the limit of our ability to detect. We don’t know anything about the orbit of this object, we just know that it is far, far away (from the. far, far out) – added.
Being so far from the sun, zarowno FarOut as well as FarFarOut move extremely slowly across the sky, so it will take years to fully determine their orbits. syndromeoł plans further observations of mysterious objectsoin order for us to learn a little more about them.