New distant dwarf planet:
During the ongoing search for the hypothetical Planet Nine at the outer edge of the solar system, astronomers have discovered a new distant dwarf planet named 2017 OF201, shedding light on the unexplored regions beyond Neptune.
- 2017 OF201 is a 700 km-wide dwarf planet with a 25,000-year orbit that extends 1,600 times the Earth-Sun distance, reaching far into the Oort cloud (outermost boundary of the Sun’s gravitational influence).
- Its orbit differs from the clustered patterns of other trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), leading some scientists to propose the gravitational influence of Planet Nine or consider alternative explanations for these orbital behaviors.
- This discovery suggests the existence of hundreds of similar icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune.
- The Kuiper Belt is a vast, doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies and dwarf planets orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune.
- It is often called the “outer solar system’s asteroid belt”.
- The Planet Nine hypothesis suggests a large, undiscovered planet beyond Neptune causing unusual gravitational effects on distant TNOs.
- This theory is based on the clustered orbits of extreme TNOs like Sedna and 2012 VP113, indicating an unseen gravitational influence.
