No astrometry has been released publicly so the object does not have a minor planet designation and the uncertainties of the orbital elements are unknown. Being a trans-Neptunian object so far from the Sun with an observation arc of just a few weeks at the time of its discovery announcement, its perihelion and aphelion have not been securely determined. Read more
Astronomers have identified the most distant object yet in the Solar System. Observations with Japan's Subaru telescope reveal the likely icy body to be some 15.5 billion km from the Sun - about three times further away than even far-flung Pluto. Scientists say their initial studies suggest that the object - catalogued as V774104 - is some 500-1,000km across. Read more
Most distant solar system object yet could hint at hidden planet
The inky black of the outer solar system just got a little brighter. A speck of light spotted in October 2015 is a rocky world more than 3 times more distant than Pluto the farthest body in our solar system ever seen. Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, whose team discovered the new addition announced the new object, called V774104, on 10 November at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, held in National Harbor, Maryland. Read more