An ambitious team of astronomers has discovered the most “far out” object ever observed in our Solar System. The object, a pink dwarf planet called 2018 VG18 and nicknamed “Farout,” lies more than 100 times further from the sun than the Earth is.
This discovery, made by Carnegie’s Scott S. Sheppard, the University of Hawaii’s David Tholen and Northern Arizona University’s Chad Trujillo, was formally announced today (Dec. 17) by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. Farout is about 120 AU away — 1 AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun — making it the first object discovered at over 100 AU. Farout is significantly farther than the now second most-distant object Eris, which is at about 96 AU. The pink dwarf planet is more than three-and-a-half times more distant than the famous, blue dwarf planet Pluto.
It’s not hard to figure out where the nickname ...
