A team of astronomers led by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution, Chad Trujillo of the University of Northern Arizona and David Tholen of the University of Hawaii, in the US, have found a new extremely distant object, well beyond Pluto, with a orbit that supports the presence that there is a planet X (or 9) much further away, the size of a super-Earth or larger.
The new object, called 2015 TG387, was announced on Tuesday by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union. At the moment its discoverers have nicknamed it The Goblin (El Duende), since its provisional designation contains the letters TG and it was seen for the first time near the festival of Halloween. An article with its full details has also been sent to The Astronomical Journal.
2015 TG387 was discovered around 80 astronomical units (AU) of our star, a measure defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. In comparison, Pluto has about 34 AU, so the new object is now about two and a half times farther from the Sun than Pluto.
The Duende is in a very long orbit and never approaches the Sun at its closest point (called perihelion), located at about 65 AU. Only 2012 VP113 and Sedna, located at 80 and 76 AU respectively, have a more distant perihelion.
But although 2015 TG387 has the third most distant perihelion, its semibayor orbital axis is larger than the 2012 VP113 and Sedna's, which means that it travels much farther from the Sun than they do. At its furthest point, it reaches up to approximately 2,300 AU
The new object, called 2015 TG387, was announced on Tuesday by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union. At the moment its discoverers have nicknamed it The Goblin (El Duende), since its provisional designation contains the letters TG and it was seen for the first time near the festival of Halloween. An article with its full details has also been sent to The Astronomical Journal.
2015 TG387 was discovered around 80 astronomical units (AU) of our star, a measure defined as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. In comparison, Pluto has about 34 AU, so the new object is now about two and a half times farther from the Sun than Pluto.
The Duende is in a very long orbit and never approaches the Sun at its closest point (called perihelion), located at about 65 AU. Only 2012 VP113 and Sedna, located at 80 and 76 AU respectively, have a more distant perihelion.
But although 2015 TG387 has the third most distant perihelion, its semibayor orbital axis is larger than the 2012 VP113 and Sedna's, which means that it travels much farther from the Sun than they do. At its furthest point, it reaches up to approximately 2,300 AU
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