Gemini Observatory: A new object at the edge of our Solar System

These are the discovery images of 2012 VP113, affectionately called 'Biden' because of the VP in the provisional name. 

It has the most distant orbit known in our Solar System. 

Three images of the night sky, each taken about two hours apart, were combined into one.

The first image was artificially colored red, second green and third blue. 

2012 VP113 moved between each image as seen by the red, green and blue dots. 

The background stars and galaxies did not move and thus their red, green and blue images combine to showup as white sources. 

Credit: Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo

The Solar System has a new most-distant member, bringing its outer frontier into focus.

New work from Scott Sheppard of Carnegie and Chadwick Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory reports the discovery of a distant dwarf planet, called 2012 VP113, which was found beyond the known edge of the Solar System.

This is likely one of thousands of distant objects that are thought to form the so-called inner Oort cloud.

What's more, their work indicates the potential presence of an enormous planet, perhaps up to 10 times the size of Earth, not yet seen, but possibly influencing the orbit of 2012 VP113, as well as other inner Oort cloud objects.

Their findings are published March 27 in Nature.

The paper is Sheppard and Trujillo, “A Sedna-like body with a perihelion of 80 astronomical units,” Nature 507 (27 March, 2014), 471-474.

The known Solar System can be divided into three parts: the rocky planets like Earth, which are close to the Sun; the gas giant planets, which are further out; and the frozen objects of the Kuiper belt, which lie just beyond Neptune's orbit.

Beyond this, there appears to be an edge to the Solar System where only one object, Sedna, was previously known to exist for its entire orbit.

But the newly found 2012 VP113 has an orbit that stays even beyond Sedna, making it the furthest known in the Solar System.

"This is an extraordinary result that redefines our understanding of our Solar System," says Linda Elkins-Tanton, director of Carnegie's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.

These images show the discovery of the new inner Oort cloud object 2012 VP113 taken about 2 hours apart on UT November 5, 2012. 

The motion of 2012 VP113 clearly stands out compared to the steady state background stars and galaxies. 

Credit: Scott S. Sheppard: Carnegie Institution for Science

Sedna was discovered beyond the Kuiper Belt edge in 2003, and it was not known if Sedna was unique, as Pluto once was thought to be before the Kuiper Belt was discovered.

With the discovery of 2012 VP113 it is now clear Sedna is not unique and is likely the second known member of the hypothesized inner Oort cloud, the likely origin of some comets.

2012 VP113's closest orbit point to the Sun brings it to about 80 times the distance of the Earth from the Sun, a measurement referred to as an astronomical unit or AU.

For context, the rocky planets and asteroids exist at distances ranging between .39 and 4.2 AU.

Gas giants are found between 5 and 30 AU, and the Kuiper belt (composed of thousands of icy objects, including Pluto) ranges from 30 to 50 AU.

In our solar system there is a distinct edge at 50 AU. Only Sedna was known to stay significantly beyond this outer boundary at 76 AU for its entire orbit.

More information: Paper: dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13156