A sizable world has been found in a part of the solar system that astronomers once thought to be empty. It probably qualifies asΒ a dwarf planet, the same classification as Pluto.
Temporarily named 2017 OF201, it takes more than 24,000 years to travel around the sun just once along a highly elliptical orbit, coming as close as 4.2 billion miles and moving as far out as 151 billion miles. (Neptune is just 2.8 billion miles from the sun.)
And 2017 OF201 may have implications for the hypothesis of an undiscovered planet, nicknamed Planet Nine, in the outer reaches of the solar system.
βWe discovered a very large trans-Neptunian object in a very exotic orbit,β said Sihao Cheng, a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.
Scientists Say Theyβve Found a Dwarf Planet Very Far From the Sunhttps://t.co/qC3srfLq8J pic.twitter.com/um7o4PtCV8
— Science News (@BioMedWonders) May 30, 2025
