Context:

• Astronomers have spotted the farthest known object in our solar system and they’ve nicknamed the pink cosmic body “Farout.”

Details:

• The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the discovery.
• “Farout” (pronounced far-out) is about 120 astronomical units away that’s 120 times the distance between Earth and the sun, or 11 billion miles. The previous record-holder was the dwarf planet Eris at 96 astronomical units.
• The Carnegie Institution’s Scott Sheppard says the object is so far away and moving so slowly it will take a few years to determine its orbit. At that distance, it could take more than 1,000 years to orbit the sun.
• The astronomers spied the dwarf planet in November using a telescope in Hawaii. It’s an estimated 500 km across.

Source:TH