Meet 2012 VP113, the new dwarf planet that’s orbiting our sun
In this combined image, the colored dots show the movement of the new dwarf planet 2012 VP113. Each image was taken two hours apart.
Move over, Pluto.
There's a new dwarf planet in town.
Astronomers on Wednesday announced the discovery of 2012 VP113, a planet-like object far beyond Pluto whose orbit reaches into the edges of the solar system.
Pinkish in color, the new planet is just 280 miles in diameter, and is likely made of methane and water frozen around a rocky core.
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It sits in a "wasteland" of the solar system called the inner Oort cloud, and is about 80 times as far from the sun as planet Earth, said astronomer Chad Trujillo, head of adaptive optics at Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and co-discoverer of this object.
His study was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
"The big question is, how is this formed? How can you get an object out there?" Trujillo said in an interview with CNN. "We really don't know an answer to that yet."
Until now, the only object in this far-off region was another dwarf planet, Sedna, discovered a decade ago.
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Astronomers estimate there are 900 objects with orbits similar to Sedna and 2012 VP113 with diameters larger than 620 miles.
Researchers also announced the discovery Wednesday of a set of rings encircling a distant astroid.
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