The new minor planet loops even further out than previously discovered dwarf planets such as Sedna and 2013 VP113. The long axis of its orbital ellipse is 730 astronomical units.

Planet Nine, if it exists, would have to be a little over six times Earth’s mass, with an orbital period of about 7,400 years. The newly cataloged minor planet is big, but not Planet Nine big.

Reported in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, researchers using data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) have identified more than 300 so-called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs)—minor ...

The object, named 2017 OF201, is a minor planet — one of the largest found in nearly a decade. At an estimated 700 kilometers wide, it’s likely large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet.Its ...

Astronomers have discovered 139 new “minor planets” in our solar system, beyond the orbit of Neptune. These small objects could provide clues as to whether the mysterious Planet Nine, a ...

But even if it doesn't spot Planet 9 directly, the Rubin Observatory might find some more minor planets, ones whose orbits might be affected by Planet 9. And that could provide additional evidence ...

Oct. 6—Dan Fleisch, professor emeritus of physics at Wittenberg University, has spent decades looking into the sky, but now he has something out there named after him. A minor planet, also known ...

The Minor Planet Center, which tracks the positions of minor planets, comets and space rocks, also received recent reports of observations of the asteroid 2023 BU.

Planets originate from protoplanetary disks, circulating disks of gas and dust that develop around young stars, ... Various forces, including magnetism, influence the movement of the dust grains.