Scientists with the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Natural Sciences say they have found a possible dwarf planet that they have dubbed an "extreme cousin" of Pluto.
They say that the possible dwarf planet is only detectable at certain times as it has an incredibly eccentric orbit around the Sun.
They say the orbit of the possible dwarf planet named 2017 OF201 takes 25,000 years to complete one trek around the Sun. Its exact size has yet to be determined, but it is estimated to be about one-third the diameter of Pluto. At its estimated size, it would be considered large enough to be classified as a dwarf planet, which was the same designation given to Pluto nearly two decades ago.
“The object’s aphelion—the farthest point on the orbit from the Sun—is more than 1,600 times that of the Earth’s orbit,” said study author Sihao Cheng. “Meanwhile, its perihelion—the closest point on its orbit to the Sun—is 44.5 times that of the Earth’s orbit, similar to Pluto's orbit.”
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The International Astronomical Union determined in 2006 that to be considered a planet, an object must orbit its host star, be mostly round, and be big enough that its gravity has cleared away any other objects of similar size near its orbit. Dwarf planets, like Pluto, have not been able to clear their orbit of debris.
Pluto is among five bodies that are considered dwarf planets, with Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris being the others. Scientists believe there could be many other dwarf planets circling the Sun.
Scientists are trying to determine what is causing 2017 OF201's wildly eccentric orbit.
“It must have experienced close encounters with a giant planet, causing it to be ejected to a wide orbit,” said Eritas Yang, a Princeton University researcher who was also involved in the study.
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“2017 OF201 spends only 1% 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. “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.”
The researchers said it took them seven years and 19 different exposures to "connect the dots" to spot 2017 OF201. They used images from the Victor M. Blanco Telescope and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to identify the potential dwarf planet.
