840 new planets have been discovered beyond Neptune and its the single largest finding till date

• The number of distant planets around the sun has increased by 50% after this particular discovery.
  
• The newly discovered world might help scientists tell the history of our solar system.
  
• Possibilities of finding such planets in the outer ring of the solar system have further increased over the years thanks to special equipment.
  

We all know that the universe is vast, but we don’t know exactly how vast it is. But humans don’t believe in giving up and their curiosity has led them to map our major parts of this celestial vastness with their powerful telescopes, satellites and spacecrafts. And the bigger truth is, despite spending billions of dollars behind space exploration, most of the universe is still uncharted and we keep discovering new things all the time.

Recently, researchers discovered and confirmed 840 small worlds in the hard-to-reach-space beyond Neptune. This is the single largest finding of planets and this discovery has increased the number of distant planets around the sun by 50%.

Here’s all you need to know about what has been found:

• This discovery was a result of a five-year project known as the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS). By using cameras installed in the Canada France Hawaii Telescope at Waimea (Hawaii), researchers discovered 840 planets at distances between six and 83 Astronomical Units (AU). One AU is equal to the distance between the Earth and the Sun and it is the standard unit to measure distances between objects in our solar system.
• The new planets that were discovered were slotted into two categories:

-- The objects that move in roundish orbits in the Kuiper belt (debris encircling the solar system).
-- “Resonant” trans-Neptunian objects, which include Pluto. These planets were moved into their current elongated orbits during Neptune’s planetary migration away from the sun.

• These celestial objects which are also called “trans-Neptune objects” basically are ice cold worlds that might help scientists learn about the history of our solar system.
• The new findings will help researchers map out all these minor planets that are no longer in the sun’s proximity, and thus figure out how larger planets, like the one we live on, were pushed into their current orbit.
• These new discoveries have also opened up possibilities of finding more such undiscovered planets in the outer regions of the solar system.