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If you heard that there was a minor planet called Farfarout, you d probably imagine a world with a hippie aesthetic lava lamps, peace symbols, classic rock, sandy beaches, gnarly waves and perhaps a nice blunt for you to smoke.
Well, to the best of our knowledge, no minor planet contains all of that but scientists have confirmed the existence of a world that they have indeed nicknamed Farfarout (it has not yet been given an official name) because it is the most distant object ever definitively known to exist in our own solar system.
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The minor planet (or planetoid) is officially known as 2018 AG37, and was first discovered by astronomers in 2018, although it was not until this month that they had enough data to be able to identify its orbit. Currently Farfarout is 132 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, meaning that it is 132 times farther away from the central star than our own planet. It has a highly elliptical orbit because of Neptune s gravit
Astronomers Just Confirmed The Most Distant Known Object in The Solar System
11 FEBRUARY 2021
The most distant known object in the Solar System is now confirmed. FarFarOut, a large chunk of rock found in 2018 at a whopping distance of around 132 astronomical units from the Sun, has been studied and characterised, and we now know a lot more about it, and its orbit.
It s about 400 kilometres (250 miles) across, which is on the low end of the dwarf planet scale, and initial observations suggest it has an average orbital distance of 101 astronomical units - that s 101 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
Farfarout is most distant object ever found in Solar System thesun.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thesun.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Astronomers have confirmed a planetoid that is almost four times farther from the Sun than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever observed in our solar system.