FILE PHOTO: Cutout images of all 19 detections of the newly identified trans-Neptunian object named 2017 OF201 are seen, from the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco Telescope, released by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, on May 22, 2025. Jiaxuan Li and Sihao Cheng/Handout via REUTERS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Scientists have identified an object about 435 miles (700 km) wide inhabiting the frigid outer reaches of our solar system that might qualify as a dwarf planet, spotting it as it travels on a highly elongated orbital path around the sun.
The researchers called it one of the most distant visible objects in our solar system, and said its existence indicates that a vast expanse of space beyond the outermost planet Neptune and a region called the Kuiper Belt may not be deserted, as long thought. The Kuiper Belt is populated by numerous icy bodies.
