The astronomers Chadwick Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, and Scott Shepherd, of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, have announced the discovery of what is probably a dwarf planet. Called for now only 2012 VP113, it has a diameter around 450 kilometers (about 280 miles). Its uniqueness is that its orbit is remarkably far from the Sun as it does not get closer than 80 astronomical units, about twice Pluto’s average distance from the Sun.

2012 VP113 was detected for the first time in November 2012 at the Cerro Tololo Inter- American Observatory in Chile and the discovery was later confirmed by other observatories. The Magellan telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile allowed to determine the orbit of this celestial body and to understand some of its features.

The orbit of 2012 VP113 brings it really far away from the Sun, up to 450 astronomical units. This means that its orbit is very elongated but from this point of view it’s not unique because in 2003 90377 Sedna was discovered, another dwarf planet whose orbit brings it to about 76 astronomical units from the Sun at its closest point and up to about 937 astronomical units at the farthest point.

The discovery of 2012 VP113 is much more interesting than it may seem from its really small size. That’s because its orbit is really at the edge of the solar system and close to the Oort Cloud, a belt of icy objects where many comets came from. 2012 VP113 and Sedna may be only two of many celestial bodies existing in that area.

A really interesting mystery concerns the birth of Sedna and 2012 VP113. They may have formed much closer to the Sun then been pushed to the boundaries of the solar system by the gravity of a star, une of the Sun’s sisters when they were just born and were still close together. Another possibility is related to the theory that in the distant past there was another giant planet in the solar system ejected by gravitational dynamics that pushed other celestial bodies far away from the Sun.

The most intriguing possibility is that in that remote area there is another large planet not yet identified. Earlier this month, the results of an examination of the data collected by the space telescope WISE were announced. It scanned the solar system without finding a trace of the other planets.

Despite this negative result in the search of a giant planet, a strange alignment of the orbits of 2012 VP113, Sedna, Eris, Pluto and some other celestial objects may suggest an external gravitational influence. To escape the observations of WISE it should be really cold. It’s a really interesting mystery that will occupy the time of many astronomers and could help understand more about the origins of the solar system.

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