carnegieinstitutionforscience

'Farout' is the farthest Solar System object known to date

The reach of the Solar System extends well beyond the full-size planets, and that's becoming clearer than ever with a new discovery. Astronomers have detected 2018 VG18 "Farout," which is the most distant Solar System object known to date at 120AU from the Sun (about 11.15 billion miles) -- the previous record-setter, the dwarf planet Eris, is 'just' 96AU away. That makes it over three and a half times farther from the Sun than Pluto (34AU), and over 100 times farther than Earth. But what is it, exactly?