Scientists say they have found a mysterious 'tiny world' in our solar system.
Apparently, the Subaru Telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii has uncovered there's a new 380-kilometer world out there in space, which has been given the nickname 'Ammonite'.
It joins as the fourth member of the sednoids, a group of small bodies with peculiar orbits around the edge of the solar system, and is considered a 'fossil' with preserved 'memories of the solar system's infancy', the scientists note.
The history of senoids dates back to 2003 when NASA researchers stumbled across what was then the most distant object in the solar system, a dwarf planet called Sedna some eight billion miles from Earth.
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A 2021 paper explains Sedna was likely created in the solar system 'at the early stage of its evolution' and its orbit changed 'because of dynamic effects that followed the sun's formation within a dense stellar cluster'.
Other theories are that the orbit changed due to a stellar encounter, like Scholz's star passing about 70,000 years ago at a distance of 52,000 astronomical units from the Sun, or that Sedna came from a low-mass star.
Anyway, the arrival of Ammonite presents space boffins with some answers to their queries - as well as more questions.
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"In recent years, spacecrafts have been sent to various small bodies in the Solar System for close observation and sample collection. However, these spacecrafts have only explored limited regions of the Solar System," Dr Fumi Yoshida, of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health and the Chiba Institute of Technology and leader of the Formation of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy (FOSSIL) project, said in a statement.
"Most of the vast Solar System remains unexplored. Wide-field observations with the Subaru Telescope are steadily pushing back the frontier," the doc added.
The telescope spotted a potential object in March, May and August 2023 on the outskirts of the solar system - and more recent observations in July last year using the telescope confirmed the object, estimated to be around 220 to 380 kilometers in diameter, and its orbit.
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Tracing through the archives, astronomers found the object had been spotted in 2021 and in 2014, as well as by the Kitt Peak National Observatory more than two decades ago in 2005.
"These findings have enabled the compilation of 19 years of observational data, significantly improving the accuracy of Ammonite's orbit," the researchers added.
What's interesting is that Ammonite currently 'follows an orbit different from the other sednoids' that suggests 'the outer solar system is more diverse and complex than previously thought', most notably challenging the likelihood of the hypothetical planet in the outer parts of the solar system.
The theory came to explain the odd clustering of orbits of some distant, icy objects.
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Dr Yukun Huang at the Center for Computational Astrophysics (CfCA) of NAOJ, who conducted simulations of Ammonite’s orbit, said: "The fact that Ammonite’s current orbit does not align with those of the other three sednoids lowers the likelihood of the Planet Nine hypothesis. It is possible that a planet once existed in the Solar System but was later ejected, causing the unusual orbits we see today."
Dr Yoshida added: "Ammonite was found in a region far away where Neptune's gravity has little influence. The presence of objects with elongated orbits and large perihelion distances in this area implies that something extraordinary occurred during the ancient era when Ammonite formed.
"Understanding the orbital evolution and physical properties of these unique, distant objects is crucial for comprehending the full history of the Solar System.
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"At present, the Subaru Telescope is among the few telescopes on Earth capable of making such discoveries. I would be happy if the FOSSIL team could make many more discoveries like this one and help draw a complete picture of the history of the Solar System."
Topics: Space, Earth, World News, Science
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