Scientists have spotted a distant object, possibly a new dwarf planet, lurking in the outer reaches of our solar system. Named 2017 OF201, the icy body is estimated to be about 435 miles (700 km) wide slightly smaller than Ceres, the smallest recognized dwarf planet.
The discovery, based on seven years of observations from telescopes in Chile and Hawaii, marks one of the most remote visible objects ever found in our solar system. 2017 OF201 belongs to a group of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) that orbit the sun beyond Neptune. The object takes an astonishing 25,000 years to complete a single orbit, compared to Earth’s 365 days.
“It is potentially large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet,” said Sihao Cheng, an astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He co-led the research with Jiaxuan Li and Eritas Yang, graduate students at Princeton University.
The object’s orbit is highly eccentric, swinging it from as close as 45 astronomical units (AU) from the sun to a staggering 1,600 AU over 1,600 times Earth’s distance from the sun. Currently, 2017 OF201 is located 90.5 AU away.
Despite its distance, this finding has major implications. Scientists previously believed the space beyond the Kuiper Belt was largely empty, but 2017 OF201 suggests otherwise. “The presence of this single object suggests that there could be another hundred or so other objects with similar orbit and size,” Cheng noted.
The object’s odd orbit also raises questions about the existence of a hypothetical ninth planet, dubbed Planet Nine or Planet X. Some scientists proposed that the clustering of other distant TNOs hinted at the gravitational influence of an unseen planet. However, Cheng said 2017 OF201’s non-conforming orbit could challenge that theory.
The object’s discovery was announced by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union and detailed in a study posted on arXiv, although it has not yet undergone peer review.
If confirmed, 2017 OF201 could become the sixth officially recognized dwarf planet, joining Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris further expanding our understanding of the dynamic and mysterious outer solar system.
