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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

from the check-back-in-2096 dept.

A newly discovered [hawaii.edu] ~700 km diameter dwarf planet, 2015 RR245 [wikipedia.org], has a highly elliptical orbit that will take it closer to the Sun than Pluto in 2096 (Pluto will be over 48 AU away in 2096 [cosinekitty.com], compared to 34 AU at closest approach for RR245):

National Research Council of Canada's Dr JJ Kavelaars first sighted RR245 in February 2016 in the OSSOS images from September 2015."There it was on the screen— this dot of light moving so slowly that it had to be at least twice as far as Neptune from the Sun." said Bannister. The team became even more excited when they realized that the object's orbit takes it more than 120 times further from the Sun than Earth. The size of RR245 is not yet exactly known, as its surface properties need further measurement. "It's either small and shiny, or large and dull." said Bannister.

[...] After hundreds of years further than 12 billion km (80 astronomical units, AU) from the Sun, RR245 is travelling towards its closest approach at 5 billion km (34 AU), which it will reach around 2096. RR245 has been on its highly elliptical orbit for at least the last 100 million years.

[...] Previous surveys have mapped almost all the brighter dwarf planets. 2015 RR245 may be one of the last large worlds beyond Neptune to be found until larger telescopes, such as LSST, come online in the mid 2020s.

MPEC 2016-N67 : 2015 RR245 [minorplanetcenter.net].

Original Submission