Do you think Pluto is far away? Look at the newly opened object V774101, which is a planetoid located 103 farther from the Sun than the Earth and three times farther than Pluto - a new distance record for the object of the Solar System.
The previous record belonged to the dwarf planet Sedna and an object called “VP113”, which are located 80 times farther from the Sun than the Earth, within the Kuiper Belt, in which Pluto and a thousand others dwell ice bodies. Astronomers do not yet know whether V774101 has its own orbit in the Kuiper Belt or it will be designated as an object Oort Clouds.
"For the whole year, we will need to track this object to determine whether it has its own orbit," said astronomer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institutes in Washington, DC. "If during the entire observation period this object does not become closer to the Sun than its current location, then it will be classified as an Oort Cloud object. But if its orbit at some time is within 50 AU from the Sun, then V774101 will be identified as an object of the Kuiper Belt - the area behind Neptune, "said Sheppard.
One a. e. or astronomical unit is equal to the distance from the Sun to the Earth.
Based on its brightness V774101, scientists have suggested that its size ranges between 500 and 1000 kilometers (300 to 600 miles) in diameter, which is half the size of Pluto.
Object V774101 was discovered a few weeks ago as part of an ongoing search for remote objects in the solar system.
The discovery was presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, which takes place in Maryland this week.
