New Dwarf Planet '2012 VP 113' Discovered in the Outer Limits of Solar System

A latest finding represents the newest member of the solar system, which is the farthest known dwarf planet orbiting beyond the edge of the system.

Using ground based observations scientists confirmed the presence of an object in the most distant orbit. Observations of the dwarf planet '2012 VP 113' orbiting around the sun and forms the inner Oort cloud. This finding was made by the astronomers at the International Minor Planet Centre on Nov. 5, 2012. The planet is informally called 'Biden' after Vice President Joe Biden.

Not much is known of the distant parts of the solar system and there is a lot of unexplored region. It is clear that the outer region of the solar system is not barren as thought earlier.

"This discovery adds the most distant address thus far to our solar system's dynamic neighborhood map,"said Kelly Fast, scientist for NASA's Planetary Astronomy Program, Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "While the very existence of the inner Oort Cloud is only a working hypothesis, this finding could help answer how it may have formed."

The solar system can be further divided into three different parts, the rocky planet like Earth orbiting close to the Sun, the gas giant planets present further out and the icy objects of the Kuiper belt that are beyond Neptune's orbit.

The orbit of the newly discovered planet is beyond that of Sedna, another mini planet discovered a decade ago that is double the size of 2012 VP113. The researchers hope to know more about how the solar system was formed and evolved by searching for more distant inner Oort cloud objects lying beyond 2012 VP113 and Sedna.

The researchers determine that there are 900 objects with an orbit similar to Sedna and 2012 VP113 with sizes more than 621 miles.  The researchers assume that the entire population of the inner Oort cloud is much more than that of the Kuiper Belt and the main asteroid belt.

"Some of these inner Oort cloud objects could rival the size of Mars or even Earth. This is because many of the inner Oort cloud objects are so distant that even very large ones would be too faint to detect with current technology", said Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution in Washington.

What's interesting is that the similarity in Sedan and 2012 VP 113 orbit along with a few other object near the edge of Kuiper Belt indicate the presence of several unseen planets that could be 10 times the size of Earth.

The finding was documented in the journal Nature.