Scott S. Sheppard: Carnegie Institution for
The discovery images of 2012 VP113, which has the most distant orbit known in our Solar System. Three images of the night sky, each taken about 2 hours apart, were combined into one. The first image was artificially colored red, second green and third blue. 2012 VP113 moved between each image as seen by the red, green and blue dots. The background stars and galaxies did not move and thus their red, green and blue images combine to show up as white sources.
Until now, the only known object in a far-off region of the solar system known as the inner Oort cloud was a dwarf plane discovered a decade ago, called Sedna.
In a study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature researchers describe the new object, called 2012 VP113.
It's still a mystery how both 2012 VP113 or Sedna got to the inner Oort cloud, but researchers now think there could be hundreds of thousands of objects in what was previously believed to be a "no-man's-land" - we just haven't detected them yet.
Where is the new object?
When scientists talk about the observable solar system they are referring to a region that extends from the sun, beyond the last planet Neptune, to a disc-shaped region called the Kupier belt.
The Kupier belt extends from about 30 astronomical units (AU) from the sun - where one AU is equal to Earth's mean distance from the sun, or about 93 million miles - to about 55 AU.
Just beyond the Kupier belt, at about 70 AU, lies the inner Oort Cloud. At an even farther distance, starting at around 5,000 AU, the Oort cloud becomes spherical and contains comets that take more than 200 years to orbit the sun, known as long-period comets.
2012 VP113 lies in a region between the Kupier belt and the spherical Oort cloud. It's closest approach to the sun is 80 AU, more distant than Sedna's closest approach of 76 AU. 2012 VP113 is a little more than one-third the size of Senda, estimated to be about 400 km (248 miles) across, whereas Sedna is about 1,000 km (621 miles) across.
Scott S. Sheppard: Carnegie Institution for Science
These images show the discovery of the new inner Oort cloud object 2012 VP113 taken about 2 hours apart on Nov. 5, 2012. The motion of 2012 VP113 clearly stands out compared to the steady state background stars and galaxies.
Chad Trujillo of Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution of Washington detected 2012 VP113 using a ground-based telescope in Chile.
In a podcast, Trujillo said they don't yet know what 2012 VP113 is made of, but the object is likely covered in ice since it's so far away from the sun.
Studying 2012 VP113 will help scientists better understand how objects got to the inner Oort cloud in the first place.