“Farout”, the Farthest Object Ever Seen in the Solar System

Re: “Farout”, the Farthest Object Ever Seen in the Solar System by walrus01 on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @08:14AM (#18706183)

Looking at the Wikipedia page there are a number of trans neptunian objects with much greater aphelions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_VG18

It is just the farthest out right now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_trans-Neptunian_object

There are likely many, many more we haven't found yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sednoid

For comparison it is often announced in the media that voyagers 1 and 2 have "left the solar system". Voyager 1 is about 144AU out right now. There are things in orbit of the sun with aphelions from 1500 to 3000AU.

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Re: “Farout”, the Farthest Object Ever Seen in the Solar System by josephhainline on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @09:39AM (#18706617)

The same folks also discovered https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_TG387 a while back, with a 1955 AU aphelion. That is a lot more far out. It's crazy to think about an orbit taking over 32 thousand years. I wonder what the sun looks like from out there.

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Re: “Farout”, the Farthest Object Ever Seen in the Solar System by walrus01 on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @09:48AM (#18706678)

Yeah, I remember that. There is speculation in the astronomy community that based on the sheer amount of cubic volume that is out there, the distance, the small size and dark color of Sednoids and other TNOs, and the small area that's been systematically searched so far, that there may be literally thousands of them out there and a total mass of 75% of Jupiter.

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