A team of astronomers believe they may have discovered a new dwarf planet—just like Pluto—on the edge of our solar system. The object—which orbits out beyond Neptune—has been named "2017 OF201" by the ...

Scientists may have discovered a dwarf planet far beyond Neptune — an unearthing that may disprove a longstanding theory ...

For the dwarf planet candidate, one trip around the sun takes over 24,000 years. Its orbit challenges a proposed path for a hypothetical Planet Nine.

But 2017 OF201 is not merely a technical achievement. Its orbit, with a longitude of perihelion equal to 306°, is an outlier among the so-called “extreme TNOs.” ...

2017 OF201’s elongated orbit makes it an outlier from the clustered objects, but Yang’s calculations suggest that the orbit of 2017 OF201 should remain stable over roughly the next billion years.

2017 OF201 is about one-third the size of Pluto, which was reclassified as a dwarf planet in August 2006, and "is likely large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet, and its orbit is extremely wide ...

How many dwarf planets are there in our solar system? The recent discovery of 2017 OF201 makes the tally anywhere between ...

Earth's orbital distance from the sun is called an astronomical unit. 2017 OF201 is currently located at a distance of 90.5 astronomical units from the sun, meaning 90.5 times as far as Earth.

The last time 2017 OF201 made its closest approach to the sun was in 1930, the year that Pluto was discovered. It will not be that close again until around the year 26186.

That makes 2017 OF201 almost 30 times farther out than Neptune at its most distant point. This kind of orbit earns the object a spot in the category of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs).