The object – which goes by the formal designation 2023 KQ14 but is nicknamed “Ammonite," in an apparent nod to the widely found, ancient fossilized mollusk – was detected by the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, according to a paper published Tuesday in Nature Astronomy.
Ammonite was discovered at its perihelion, which is the point in a celestial body's orbit at which it is closest to the sun, according to the paper. It lies beyond Pluto at a distance of 71 AU, or astronomical units – putting it 71 times the average distance between the sun and Earth, according to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), whose astronomers made the discovery.
The object was found in a region so far on the solar system's outskirts that gravity from Neptune, the planet farthest away from the sun in our solar system, has little influence on it, Fumi Yoshida, a planetary scientist at the NAOJ and co-author of the paper, said in a statement.
Such objects are technically known as sednoids. Ammonite is only the fourth-ever sednoid to be discovered, the researchers said.
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