A New Dwarf Planet Has Joined Our Solar System's Family—Meet Pluto's 'Extreme Cousin'
Officially named 2017 OF201, the object is estimated to be about one-third the diameter of Pluto, making it large enough to be classified as a dwarf planet, the same designation given to Pluto in 2006.
According to the International Astronomical Union, to be considered a planet, an object must orbit a star, be mostly round, and be big enough that its gravity clears away any other objects of similar size near its orbit. Dwarf planets, like Pluto, can't clear their orbit of debris.
Sihao Cheng, an astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences who led the team that discovered the object, described it as an "extreme 'cousin' of Pluto."
The new finding is known as a trans-Neptunian object, or TNO, which are bodies in the solar system that orbit the sun beyond Neptune, which is 30 times more distant from the sun than Earth. Because the object takes an incredibly lengthy 25,000 years to complete one orbit around the sun, it's only detectable at certain times.
Cheng discovered the object as part of an ongoing research project to identify TNOs and possible new planets in the outer solar system. The area beyond the Kuiper Belt, where the object is located, has previously been thought to be empty, but the team's discovery suggests otherwise.
"2017 OF201 spends only 1 percent of its orbital time close enough to us to be detectable. The presence of this single object suggests there could be another hundred or so other objects with similar orbits and sizes; they are just too far away to be detectable now," Cheng said.
He added: "Even though advances in telescopes have enabled us to explore distant parts of the universe, there is still a great deal to discover about our own solar system."
Read the original article on Martha Stewart
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


National Geographic
16-07-2025
- National Geographic
Pluto
The world was introduced to dwarf planets in 2006, when petite Pluto was stripped of its planet status and reclassified as a dwarf planet. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) currently recognizes two other dwarf planets, Eris and Ceres. What differentiates a dwarf planet from a planet? For the most part, they are identical, but there's one key difference: A dwarf planet hasn't "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit, which means it has not become gravitationally dominant and it shares its orbital space with other bodies of a similar size. (Astronomers and other experts are debating this definition.) Is Pluto a Dwarf Planet? Because it has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, Pluto is considered a dwarf planet. It orbits in a disc-like zone beyond the orbit of Neptune called the Kuiper belt, a distant region populated with frozen bodies left over from the solar system's formation. The dwarf planet is a whopping 3.7 billion miles (5.9 billion kilometers) from the sun, and its average temperature hovers around -356 degrees Fahrenheit (-215 degrees Celsius). Pluto's surface is composed of a mixture of frozen nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide ices. The dwarf planet also has polar caps and regions of frozen methane and nitrogen. Pluto has three known moons, Hydra, Nix, and Charon. With a diameter of about 737 miles (1,186 kilometers), Charon is the largest of Pluto's moons. The duo's gravity puts them in a synchronous orbit, which means they face each other with the same side all the time. In January 2006, NASA launched its New Horizons spacecraft. It swung past Jupiter for a gravity boost and scientific studies in February 2007, conducted a six-month-long reconnaissance flyby study of Pluto and its moons in summer 2015, and culminated with Pluto's closest approach on July 14, 2015. As part of an extended mission, the spacecraft is heading farther into the Kuiper Belt to examine another of the ancient, icy mini-worlds in that vast region, at least a billion miles beyond Neptune's orbit. New Horizons also found Pluto to have blue skies and water ice. Pluto nearly fills the frame in this black and white image from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, taken on July 13, 2015 when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles (768,000 kilometers) from the surface. This is the last and most detailed image sent to Earth before the spacecraft's closest approach to Pluto on July 14. Photograph courtesy NASA/APL/SwRI Ceres Also considered by many to be an asteroid, Ceres, like Pluto, was also renamed as a dwarf planet in 2006. Ceres was discovered by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801. Ceres's shape resembles a flattened sphere with a diameter of about 590 miles (950 kilometers). It is by far the largest and most massive known body in the asteroid belt, and it contains about one-third of the estimated total mass of all asteroids in the belt. Ceres is made up of a rocky inner core surrounded by a mantle of water-ice. A thin, dusty, outer crust covers the dwarf planet named after the Roman goddess of grain.
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Yahoo
Science news this week: An 'interstellar visitor' and the oldest ancient Egyptian genome ever sequenced
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. To kick off this week's science news, our solar system received an unexpected "interstellar visitor." On Tuesday (July 1), NASA and the International Astronomical Union confirmed the existence of a mysterious space object, most likely a comet, hurtling toward our little corner of the universe. The next day, NASA gave it an official name — 3I/ATLAS. The interstellar object is zooming along at around 152,000 mph (245,000 km/h) in an unusually flat and straight trajectory that is unlike anything else in the solar system. 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object ever recorded, and scientists are now scrambling to learn all they can about this rare object before it exits the solar system next year. Researchers have successfully sequenced the genome of a man who lived in ancient Egypt 5,000 years ago. The DNA offers a rare window into the genetic history of ancient Egyptians, revealing that this individual had ties to both Mesopotamia and North Africa. The man's body was recovered from a tomb in Nuwayrat, south of Cairo, in 1902, and is only the fourth ancient Egyptian genome to be sequenced — not to mention the oldest and most complete. Discover more archeology news —Roman army camp found in Netherlands, beyond the empire's frontier —125,000-year-old 'fat factory' run by Neanderthals discovered in Germany —300-year-old pirate-plundered shipwreck that once held 'eyewatering treasure' discovered off Madagascar A purr is music to the ears of any cat lover. The low, gentle rumble is often a sign that our furry companions are relaxed and content. But is this cute volatilization unique to our feline friends? —If you enjoyed this, sign up for our Life's Little Mysteries newsletter A new age of autonomous space exploration could soon be upon us — if the results of a recent artificial intelligence (AI) study are anything to go by. Researchers tested to see whether AI models like ChatGPT could hypothetically pilot a spacecraft using text prompts. ChatGPT performed surprisingly well and completed most of the challenges researchers set, though it didn't actually pilot anything. Space exploration could change forever with the development of autonomous AI-controlled systems. Right now, speed-of-light limitations mean we can't directly control deep-space exploration spacecraft in real time, while human-piloted spacecraft have to cater to our inconvenient biological needs, restricting how far we can go. Discover more space news —Astrophotographer snaps 'once-in-a-lifetime' shot of solar flare photobombing the ISS —'A completely new phenomenon': Astronomers spot a planet causing its star to constantly explode —Farthest 'mini-halo' ever detected could improve our understanding of the early universe —Wild orcas offer humans food. Could they be trying to make friends — or manipulate us? —MIT's high-tech 'bubble wrap' turns air into safe drinking water — even in Death Valley —New blood test detects cancers 3 years before typical diagnosis, study hints —Watch mud volcano erupt beneath a crown of flames in Taiwan Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, and Brooke Rollins, the secretary of Agriculture, have suggested the U.S. could allow the bird flu virus to spread through some poultry farms to identify immunity in surviving birds. However, on Thursday (July 3), researchers warned that such an approach is dangerous and could potentially trigger a new pandemic. A group of virologists, veterinarians and health security experts wrote an article, published in the journal Science, in which they argued it would be ineffective to let the virus spread in farms and risk bird flu crossing over into human populations. "Essentially, the longer you allow a virus that has shown to be effective in infecting multiple hosts survive in an environment, the greater the chance you give it to spread, to mutate, and to try its luck at adaptation," perspective first-author Erin Sorrell, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Live Science. "Worse case scenario, the virus adapts and expands its host range to become transmissible in humans … Now we have a pandemic." If you're looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best long reads, book excerpts and interviews published this week. —'It's how I would imagine I would react if I saw a real-life giant dinosaur': What Jurassic World Rebirth's scientific advisor thinks of the movie (Interview) —What are whole-body MRIs, and are they worth the hype? (Query) —Mesopotamia quiz: Test your knowledge about the ancient civilizations of the Fertile Crescent (Quiz) And something for the skywatchers: —2 'new stars' have exploded into the night sky at once — potentially for the first time in history A facial reconstruction of a Stone Age woman has revealed what a prehistoric hunter-gatherer may have looked like in stunning detail. Researchers and artists created the reconstruction using the woman's skeleton, DNA and other scientific data. The Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) hunter-gatherer, known as "Margaux woman," lived around 10,500 years ago in what is now Belgium. Researchers have found that she likely had blue or light-colored eyes, with a skin complexion that's slightly lighter than most other known Western Europeans from her time. Want more science news? Follow our Live Science WhatsApp Channel for the latest discoveries as they happen. It's the best way to get our expert reporting on the go, but if you don't use WhatsApp, we're also on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Flipboard, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky and LinkedIn.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Yahoo
NASA confirms that mysterious object shooting through the solar system is an 'interstellar visitor' — and it has a new name
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA scientists have confirmed that a mysterious object shooting toward us through the solar system is an "interstellar object" — only the third of its kind ever seen. Experts have also given the cosmic interloper an official name, and revealed new information about its origins and trajectory. News of the extrasolar entity, initially dubbed A11pl3Z, broke on Tuesday (July 1), when NASA and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) both listed it as a confirmed object. It was first discovered in data collected between June 25 and June 29 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), which automatically scans the night sky using telescopes in Hawaii, Chile and South Africa. Multiple telescopes across the world have subsequently spotted the object in observation data that date back to June 14. The object is traveling toward the sun extremely fast, at around 152,000 mph (245,000 km/h), and observations suggest that it is set on an extremely flat and straight trajectory, unlike anything else in the solar system. This led many experts to speculate that it originated from beyond the sun's gravitational influence and has enough momentum to shoot straight through our cosmic neighborhood without slowing down. On Wednesday (July 2), NASA released a statement confirming that A11pl3Z is indeed an interstellar object and will not remain in the solar system for long. The researchers also shared the object's new official name, 3I/ATLAS, and revealed that it is most likely a comet, upending previous assumptions that it was an asteroid. The object's full comet name is C/2025 N1 (ATLAS). Until now, only two confirmed interstellar visitors have ever been spotted: Comet 2I/Borisov, which was seen sailing through the solar system in 2019; and 'Oumuamua, a cigar-shaped object that made headlines in 2017 when some astronomers argued it was potentially an alien probe, before experts showed it was most likely a hydrogen-spewing space rock. But scientists have long suspected that many more interstellar interlopers likely pass through our cosmic neighborhood without ever being detected. Related: 1 million 'interstellar objects' — each larger than the Statue of Liberty — may lurk in the outer solar system Researchers initially suspected that 3I/ATLAS was an asteroid, like 'Oumuamua. However, the object has displayed "tentative signs of cometary activity" like 2I/Borisov — including being surrounded by a bright cloud of gas and ice, known as a coma, and having what looks like a tail — according to the IAU's Minor Planet Center. However, more observations are needed to confirm this. There has been no additional information about the potential comet's size or shape: The current best guess is that it could be up to 12 miles (20 kilometers) across. However, NASA has revealed updated information about its upcoming journey through the solar system. 3I/ATLAS is currently around 4.5 times as far from the sun as Earth is. It will reach its closest point to the sun, or perihelion, on Oct. 30, coming within 1.4 Earth-sun distances, or astronomical units (AU), of our home star. Shortly before this happens, the comet will also make its closest approach to Mars, coming within 0.4 AU of the Red Planet. Earth will be on the opposite side of the sun to 3I/ATLAS during its solar flyby. The comet will likely make its closest approach to Earth in December, on its journey back out of the solar system. As a result, "the comet poses no threat to Earth and will remain at a [minimum] distance of at least 1.6 astronomical units," NASA officials wrote in the statement. The interloper is currently too faint to see with amateur stargazing equipment, but it may brighten significantly in the coming weeks and months. However, you can watch it shoot through the solar system via an upcoming livestream from the Virtual Telescope Project, starting at 6:00 p.m. EST on Thursday (July 3). RELATED STORIES —An interstellar object exploded over Earth in 2014, declassified government data reveal —Scientists want to build an 'interstellar interceptor' to play hide-and-seek with the next 'Oumuamua —An interstellar visitor may have changed the course of 4 solar system planets, study suggests 3I/ATLAS is now "being investigated by astronomers around the world," NASA officials wrote. Researchers will be able to study it until the end of September, when it will become obscured by the sun's light, and again from December onwards when the comet reemerges from behind our home star. The interstellar visitor will likely be imaged by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory — the world's most powerful optical telescope, which recently released its first images. Some researchers have also suggested using the James Webb Space Telescope and NASA's Mars rovers to photograph the object as it shoots toward the sun.