Scientists have discovered two small “worlds” far outside the orbit of Neptune in the deepest survey ever conducted to search out distant solar system objects.
Scientists have discovered two small “worlds” far outside the orbit of Neptune in the deepest survey ever conducted to search out distant solar system objects.
The new objects are located beyond the Kuiper Belt, which is a region of small icy objects just beyond Neptune, of which Pluto is a member. They have the third and fourth most-distant perihelia, which is when an object has its closest approach distance to the Sun, of any known Solar System objects.
In addition, the orbital motions of these objects are in resonance with Neptune’s orbit, which was somewhat unexpected. Their orbital paths imply that these worlds either have interacted with Neptune in the past or are continuing to do so, despite their great distances from the ice giant planet. This latest discovery is based on observations made with the Subaru Telescope in Hawai’i and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) telescope in Chile. Scott S. Sheppard from Carnegie Institution for Science and his collaborators Chadwick Trujillo from Gemini Observatory and David J. Tholen from University of Hawai’i have been conducting the widest, deepest survey ever to search out distant solar system objects. The team members started their survey using the Suprime-Cam imager at the Subaru Telescope several years ago.
