Space object called 'Farfarout' is most distant object ever found in solar system

Astronomers recently discovered the most distant object ever found in our solar system, which is appropriately nicknamed ‘Farfarout’, after the previous record-holder ‘Farout’. The latest planetoid, the term for a small chunk of rock, dust or ice orbiting the sun, was discovered by the same astronomers, who previously found ‘farout’, in 2018. According to a press note, after years of observing the object’s trajectory across the sky, the astronomers announced that they could confidently say ‘Farfarout’ is much farther out than any solar-system object seen before. 

Farfarout was spotted with the help of Subaru Telescope, located on Maunakea in Hawaii. The team of researchers informed that the planetoid is 132 astronomical units (AU) from the sun, meaning it is 132 times farther from the sun than Earth is, and about four times as far as Pluto. It also takes about 1,000 years for the planetoid to complete one orbit around the sun. Further, the researchers have also exterminated that Farfarout is about 250 miles (400km) across, which would place it on the low end of being a dwarf planet like Pluto.

David Tholen of the University of Hawaii said, “Farfarout takes a millennium to go around the Sun once. Because of this, it moves very slowly across the sky, requiring several years of observations to precisely determine its trajectory”. 

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‘Tip of iceberg of objects in very distant solar system’ 

According to the press note, Farfarout is very faint. The IAU's Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts announced that it has given Farfarout the provisional designation 2018 AG37. The Solar System’s most distant known member will receive an official name after more observations are gathered and its orbit becomes even more refined in the coming years. Further, the research team is also confident that even more distant objects remain to be discovered on the outskirts of the solar system, and that its distance record might not stand for long. 

Co-discoverer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science said, “The discovery of Farfarout shows our increasing ability to map the outer Solar System and observe farther and farther towards the fringes of our Solar System”. 

He added, “Only with the advancements in the last few years of large digital cameras on very large telescopes has it been possible to efficiently discover very distant objects like Farfarout. Even though some of these distant objects are quite large — the size of dwarf planets — they are very faint because of their extreme distances from the Sun. Farfarout is just the tip of the iceberg of objects in the very distant Solar System”. 

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