Researchers have found a new dwarf planet in our solar system. It’s about the size of Iowa, and is the 6th dwarf planet. It’s official name is 2014 UZ224. It’s currently about 91 times as far from the sun as Earth is (Pluto averages 39 times). It’s just inside the orbit of Eris. It’s orbital period is about 1100 years.
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New outer dwarf planet found
Just this month scientists at Hawaii’s Gemini Observatory announced evidence of an undiscovered dwarf planet outside of Pluto’s orbit. This planet has a similar orbit to Sedna, another trans-Neptunian body. The new object, 2012 VP113, has a diameter under 280 miles. It gets as close as ~ 80 AU, and as far as 461 AU.
This body may point to another planet, a supposed super-Earth. VP113’s orbit looks to be perturbed by a planet with a mass of about 10 Earth’s and about 250 AUs out. Previous searches for outer planets looked for gas giants, not terrestrial planets.
The discovery of VP113 points to there being many more Sedna-like objects out there.