Pluto is no longer the only named dwarf planet in our solar system and that’s because a new one has just been discovered, and its name is Goblin. Just earlier this week, astronomers made an announcement about the discovery of an object that founds itself at a big distance from us and it supports the existence of a larger Planet X, which also has the name of Planet Nine.
Formally, this new dwarf planet is listed as 2015 TG387, its discoverers called it The Goblin due to its provisional designation ‘TG’ and because it was first seen around Halloween. The Goblin is a dwarf planet because it orbits our Sun but it doesn’t have an influence that is strong enough to keep other planets from entering its neighborhood.
Pluto was not too long ago a full-fledged planet but in 2006 it was downgraded to a dwarf planet because of the same reason. Current scientific estimates hold The Goblin at about 185 miles (or 300 kilometers) in diameter, making it really small, even if we are talking about a dwarf planet. Scientists managed to pick up this small planet at about 80 astronomical units (AU) away from the sun.
To take things into perspective, this distance is equivalent to about 7.4 billion miles, making The Goblin to be at 2.5 times farther than Pluto. The Goblin came the closest in its orbit at 65 AU, or about 6 billion miles. On the other hand, 2,300 AU (or almost 214 billion miles) represents the most distant point that The Goblin has been from the Sun.
All this means that this dwarf planet is currently really far away and according to what researchers have to say, it takes 40,000 years for The Goblin to complete its orbit.
Juana loves to cover the tech and gaming industry, she always stays on the first row of CES conference and reports live from there.
