Astronomers have spotted an icy object near Neptune that they say hails from the distant Oort Cloud, the distant reservoir of asteroids that encircles the solar system out beyond the orbit of Pluto.
The object, at least 30 miles wide, is on the return leg of a 22,500-year journey around the sun, astronomers announced today [SPACE.com].
The new object is about 60 miles in diameter. "It's basically a comet, but it never gets close enough to the Sun to develop a long, bright tail of evaporated gas and dust," [lead researcher Andrew] Becker said in a statement [Reuters].
Researchers say the newly discovered voyager, which is currently going by the unromantic name 2006 SQ372, is the first object ever sighted from the inner Oort Cloud, a region that astronomers know very little about. Studying the comet as it makes its way through the solar system could give astronomers new insight ...
