Dwarf Planet Beyond Neptune Confirmed As Third Largest In The Solar System

Dwarf Planet 2007 OR10 located beyond the orbit of Neptune has been confirmed as the third largest of its kind known until now in the Solar System. The discovery was announced in April after a research team came to the conclusion on the basis of thermal readings from the Herschel Space Observatory and data from the Kepler space telescope.

2007 OR10 was first detected by astronomers in 2007, and its color was thought to be white. Further investigations by researchers from Konkoly Observatory showed that the dwarf planet, which had a slow rotation period, was in fact red.  The scientists suggest that the planetary mass owes its red hue to the presence of methane frosts that become red when irradiated with cosmic rays. The presence of water has been detected on the dwarf planet which implies that it was cryovolcanically active in the past.

Astronomers have found 2007 OR10 to be rather interesting. It is much larger in size than was expected out of it, and its rotation time is 45 hours, implying a day on the planet is quite stretched. Furthermore, the planet's orbit of the sun is long, and research indicates it last reached perihelion (the point in orbit closest to Sun) in 1857 and won't reach aphelion (point in the orbit furthest from Sun) until 2130.

Dwarf planets are some of the most bewildering objects in the solar system. These celestial bodies are neither planets nor satellites; in fact the known dwarf planets are smaller than the Moon. At present, five dwarf planets are recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), namely Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. The prevailing estimates list more than 200 dwarf planets that may be found when the Kuiper belt is explored and the numbers could rise to more than 10,000, if one takes into consideration the objects scattered outside the belt. For now, astronomers have still not named the newly confirmed dwarf planet.