It has recently come to light that a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) has detected the existence of a planetoid that is almost four times farther from the sun than pluto. The planetoid is nicknamed ‘Farfarout’ and was first spotted back in 2018.
As reported by the University of Hawaii, Farfarout’s current distance from the Sun is 132 astronomical units (au) and the newly discovered object has a very elongated orbit that takes it out to 175 au at its most distant, and inside the orbit of Neptune, to around 27 au, when it is closest to the Sun.
The report also states that “farfarout” is very faint based on its brightness and distance from the Sun. The team estimates the object’s size to be about 400 km across. “The discovery of Farfarout shows our increasing ability to map the outer solar system and observe farther and farther towards the fringes of our solar system,” said Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science.
