US EditionPluto's 'Extreme Cousin' Is a Dwarf Planet Found at the Far Reaches of Our Solar System
- Scientists led by Sihao Cheng discovered a potential dwarf planet named 2017 OF201 orbiting beyond Neptune and announced it on May 21, 2025.
- They identified 2017 OF201 through advanced analysis of 19 archival images taken between 2011 and 2018 by telescopes in Chile and Hawaii.
- 2017 OF201 has an extreme elliptical orbit taking about 25,000 years to complete, with perihelion near 44.5 AU and aphelion extending beyond 1,600 AU into the inner Oort cloud.
- Cheng noted the object spends only 1% of its orbit near Earth, suggesting possibly hundreds of similar undetectable objects, while its orbit challenges some Planet Nine hypotheses.
- The discovery implies the outer solar system beyond the Kuiper Belt is not empty and highlights the need for further observations to understand these distant objects and their dynamics.
26 Articles
26 Articles
The Tennessean
UpstractPluto's 'extreme cousin' is a dwarf planet found at the far reaches of our solar system
A new dwarf planet, discovered beyond Neptune and described as Pluto's 'cousin,' could void the hypothesis of a Planet X in our solar system.
New Planet? Scientists Discover Unseen Object on Edge of Solar System
The solar system just got a new official member. It's a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) called 2017 OF201. That means it orbits the sun farther than Neptune. In fact, its orbit is so large that it takes about 25,000 years to complete, according to NewScientist.
Possible dwarf planet discovered at solar system's edge
A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO), named 2017 OF201, at the edge of our solar system. The TNO is potentially large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, the same category as the much more well-known Pluto. The new object is one of the most distant visible objects in our solar system and…
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