An extremely distant dwarf planet nicknamed the Goblin has been discovered well beyond Pluto, further redefining the outer reaches of the solar system.
A round frozen world just 300 kilometres across, the Goblin was spotted by astronomers in 2015 around Halloween while hunting for a hypothetical massive planet, known as Planet Nine . But it wasn’t publicly revealed until now due to further observations with ground telescopes.
Planet Nine has not yet been seen directly, but The Goblin appears to be under the gravitational influence of a giant unseen object, adding to astronomers’ certainty that it is out there.
The astronomer, Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science who made the discovery, said the Goblin was on the small end for a dwarf planet. It is officially known as 2015 TG387 by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre. The planet is 2,300 times further from the sun than Earth.
The third dwarf planet recently found to be orbiting on the frigid fringes of our solar system.
Assistant professor of planetary science at Caltech, Konstantin Batygin who has worked on theoretical simulations of the hypothetical Planet Nine, explained the latest observations as a “great discovery indeed”.
“Despite centuries of surveys, our understanding of the solar system remains incomplete,” he said. “This certainly adds to the growing ledger of … objects that show Planet Nine’s influence.”
> Shiuly Rina
Solar System Redefined by the Discovery of Dwarf planet 'The Goblin'
