2018 VG18 is the first solar system object to be spotted at over 100 astronomical units from the Sun. Nicknamed "Farout", the object has a diameter of around 500 km and a pinkish color:
Farout is 120 astronomical units (AU) from the sun — one AU is the distance between Earth and the sun, which is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). The object is more than 3.5 times the current distance between Pluto and the sun (34 AU), and it outpaces the previous farthest-known solar system object, the dwarf planet Eris, which is currently about 96 AU from the sun. NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft recently entered interstellar space at about 120 AU, leaving the sun's "sphere of influence" called the heliopause, where bodies experience the solar wind.
To be clear: The record Farout now holds is for the most-distant solar system body ever observed. That doesn't mean no other objects gets farther away from the sun than 120 AU. In fact, we know some that do. The dwarf planet Sedna gets more than 900 AU away on its highly elliptical orbit, for example, and there are probably trillions of comets in the Oort Cloud, which lies between about 5,000 AU and 100,000 AU from the sun.
Scott S. Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chad Trujillo, the team that discovered "Farout", also announced the discovery of 2015 TG387, "The Goblin", earlier this year. They hope to find more extreme trans-Neptunian objects in order to determine the location or existence of Planet Nine.
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The search for Planet X gets a boost with the discovery of a super distant object
A new discovery is strengthening the idea that a large, mysterious planet — known as Planet 9 or Planet X — may be lurking unseen at the Solar System's edge. Astronomers say they have found a tiny object orbiting far out from the Sun that fits with the Planet X theory. In fact, the object may have even been pushed onto the path it takes now by this hidden planet's gravity.
The tiny rock — eloquently named TG387 and nicknamed "The Goblin" — was spotted by astronomers at the Carnegie Institution of Science using a giant Japanese observatory in Hawaii called Subaru. The Carnegie team first spotted the object in 2015 and then followed it on its journey around the Sun for the last four years. Those observations revealed an incredibly distant target. TG387 takes a whopping 40,000 years to complete just one orbit around the Sun. And it's on a very elliptical path far from the inner Solar System; the closest it ever gets to the Sun is 65 Astronomical Units (AU), or 65 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth. For reference, Pluto only gets as far as 49 AUs from the Sun.
This orbit is particularly enticing since it puts TG387 in a select group of distant Solar System objects that all point to the possible existence of Planet X. Right now, there are 14 far-out space rocks that all share similar orbit patterns, suggesting that this planet is out there. Their paths are all super elongated, and they all cluster together in the same area when they approach the Sun. Plus, their orbits are all tilted alike, and they point in the same general direction, as if something big has pushed them into similar places. These objects are the strongest lines of evidence astronomers have for Planet X, and finding a new one that matches this pattern reinforces that idea that this planet is more than just a theory.
Planet Nine and 2015 TG387.
Also at ScienceAlert, The Atlantic, USA Today, and NPR.
A New High Perihelion Inner Oort Cloud Object
Previously: Another Trans-Neptunian Object With a High Orbital Inclination Points to Planet Nine
CU Boulder Researchers Say Collective Gravity, Not Planet Nine, Explains Orbits of Detached Objects
Planet Nine Search Turns Up 10 More Moons of Jupiter
Astronomers discover solar system's most distant object, nicknamed 'FarFarOut'
For most people, snow days aren't very productive. Some people, though, use the time to discover the most distant object in the solar system.
That's what Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., did this week when a snow squall shut down the city. A glitzy public talk he was due to deliver was delayed, so he hunkered down and did what he does best: sifted through telescopic views of the solar system's fringes that his team had taken last month during their search for a hypothesized ninth giant planet.
That's when he saw it, a faint object at a distance 140 times farther from the sun than Earth—the farthest solar system object yet known, some 3.5 times more distant than Pluto. The object, if confirmed, would break his team's own discovery, announced in December 2018, of a dwarf planet 120 times farther out than Earth, which they nicknamed "Farout." For now, they are jokingly calling the new object "FarFarOut." "This is hot off the presses," he said during his rescheduled talk on 21 February.
"Farout" is designated 2018 VG18 by the Minor Planet Center. "FarFarOut" has no designation yet.
List of Solar System objects most distant from the Sun in 2018.
Previously: "Farout": Most Distant Known Solar System Object Spotted, at 120 AU
Astronomers Confirm Solar System's Most Distant Known Object Is Indeed Farfarout
Astronomers Confirm Solar System's Most Distant Known Object Is Indeed Farfarout:
With the help of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, and other ground-based telescopes, astronomers have confirmed that a faint object discovered in 2018 and nicknamed "Farfarout" is indeed the most distant object yet found in our Solar System. The object has just received its designation from the International Astronomical Union.
Farfarout was first spotted in January 2018 by the Subaru Telescope, located on Maunakea in Hawai'i. Its discoverers could tell it was very far away, but they weren't sure exactly how far. They needed more observations.
"At that time we did not know the object's orbit as we only had the Subaru discovery observations over 24 hours, but it takes years of observations to get an object's orbit around the Sun," explained co-discoverer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science. "All we knew was that the object appeared to be very distant at the time of discovery."
Sheppard and his colleagues, David Tholen of the University of Hawai'i and Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University, spent the next few years tracking the object with the Gemini North telescope (also on Maunakea in Hawai'i) and the Carnegie Institution for Science's Magellan Telescopes in Chile to determine its orbit. [1] They have now confirmed that Farfarout currently lies 132 astronomical units (au) from the Sun, which is 132 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. (For comparison, Pluto is 39 au from the Sun, on average.)
Farfarout is even more remote than the previous Solar System distance record-holder, which was discovered by the same team and nicknamed "Farout." Provisionally designated 2018 VG18, Farout is 124 au from the Sun.
However, the orbit of Farfarout is quite elongated, taking it 175 au from the Sun at its farthest point and around 27 au at its closest, which is inside the orbit of Neptune. Because its orbit crosses Neptune's, Farfarout could provide insights into the history of the outer Solar System.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @01:18AM (13 children)
It's worth noting that the Oort Cloud is a theoretical construction.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 18 2018, @01:51AM (12 children)
"Yes. Not all scientists agree that it exists, there no consensus out-there; the Oort Cloud skeptics have their right to free speech and public attention."
So, Ok, the above being said, what's the next move?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @02:52AM (9 children)
They also taught everyone for 70 years that a comet is a dirty snowball, but surface observation from the last decade has revealed there's a snowball's chance in hell that this is true.
Why can't scientist and their minions in the press actually respect the Scientific Method by using more precise language that doesn't trick the world, through endless repetition, into mistaking their ideas for fact?
How many times must experts be proven wrong before they develope genuine humility with respect to the mysteries of our Cosmos. You want to know how to attract the youth to Science? Quit telling them you've got it all figured out already; start admitting to them that "We don't know."
That's what's next: Genuine humility.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:16AM (1 child)
You really thought that comets are literally packed snow? Like, not ice and rock? Just packed snow with some silicate dust?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @05:19AM
When they sent a probe to land on a comet, they put spikes on its feet, so that it would stick more readily to the surface.
Meanwhile, a "crazy nut" told them that it would be just like an asteroid and therefore bounce off the surface in an unintended fashion, which turned out to be an accurate description.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:37AM
These might be more to your liking:
- Rosetta spacecraft becomes first manmade probe to orbit a comet [wsws.org]
- Rosetta spacecraft completes mission with crash landing into comet [wsws.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:38AM
I absolutely agree. The sad fact is that science usually needs funding, and a whole funding machine has evolved that of course includes enticements.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:47AM (1 child)
You call it a travesty, I call it a nitpick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @03:45PM
It really destroys their view of how the solar system was formed. That's fundamental. That ain't a "nitpick".
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @11:37AM
[[Citation needed]]
And please, actual scientific citations, not popular science stuff. The latter is quite often simplified to the point of being wrong.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 18 2018, @06:59PM (1 child)
Maybe you should take a real Astronomy course instead of getting all your info from Bill Nye the Science Guy.
He's entertaining and all but it's all first-approximation stuff with that guy (mostly 'cause he's teaching morons, AKA children).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:37AM
Yep, kids are ignorant, it's true they usually don't know much. But it's because they haven't had a long time to learn, not because they are incapable of thinking.
They are not morons like you.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:04AM (1 child)
"nuke the entire site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:07AM
Ripley
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Tuesday December 18 2018, @02:38AM (1 child)
2012 VP113 (nickname "Biden") was a similar far out object with similar pink color. Back then it was speculated [forbes.com] that in Biden's case:
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @05:31AM
So its basiclly the same stuff as arctic ice cap?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday December 18 2018, @05:12PM
I'm waiting for the next really distant object to be names, "SpaceNuts".
This sig for rent.