Oddball Object Circles Sun Beyond Neptune
A distant object named Buffy has been spotted circling the sun far beyond Neptune in a strange tilted orbit that is making some astronomers question how the outer reaches of the solar system formed.
Officially called 2004 XR 190 by the International Astronomical Union but code-named Buffy, the object is now about 58 times as far from the sun as Earth, and twice as far from the sun as Neptune.
At this distance from the heart of the planetary system, Buffy is considered a Kuiper Belt object, but an odd one, astronomers working in Canada, France and the United States said in a statement on Tuesday.