American astronomers announced the discovery of another dwarf planet in the inner Solar system. The object is the most distant ever detected from the Sun planets. Tiny world, received the formal title of the 2018 VG18, called Farout (from the English “far out” — very far) and is at a distance of about 18 billion kilometers from the Sun, which is about 3.5 times further than the distance from our sun to Pluto, reports NewScientist.
A team of scientists found Farout using a Japanese telescope “Subaru”, established on the island of Hawaii. Usually so distant objects are thanks to the numerous analysis of images of the same region of space — scientists are thus trying to find something moving in the background of the other stars of the point. New dwarf planet discovered by astronomer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie institution.
About the new world practically unknown. Based on these data, the diameter is about 500 kilometers, enough to be classified a dwarf planet. It is also known that the object has a pinkish tinge, which may indicate the presence of the ice surface.
Scientists hope that new observations Farout will let you know one very important characteristic – its orbit. The interest in this object is due to its location. At the same of the most distant objects observed very strange behavior in their orbits, caused by scientists a very strong gravitational anomaly. Based on this, astronomers take out the assumption that at the farthest reaches of the Solar system can be a very large planet that these gravitational anomalies from the observed objects and creates. This undiscovered planet scientists have dubbed “Planet X” or “Ninth planet”.
Approximate distances. New dwarf world is at a distance of about 120.e. from the Sun
If a dwarf planet Farout will be demonstrating the same unusual behavior, it may help to narrow it down to the hypothetical Planet X, the researchers said. In fact, the very Farout was discovered during the search of the Planet X.
“It could push us in the right direction and tell me if anything in the Solar system another major planet. But first we need to find out all the details and features of the orbit Farout,” says Sheppard.
“Most likely, one revolution around the Sun dwarf planet requires more than 1000 years, so it will take several years of observation to all the calculate correctly,” adds the scientist.
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