Where Is It?

• The dwarf planet is the most distant object ever seen in

orbit around the sun, even more distant than Sedna, the
planetoid discovered almost 2 years ago. It is almost
10 billion miles from the sun and more than 3 times
more distant than the next closest planet, Pluto and
takes more than twice as long to orbit the sun as Pluto.
• The orbit of the new dwarf planet is even more
eccentric than that of Pluto. Pluto moves from 30 to 50
times the sun-earth distance over its 250 year orbit,
while the new planet moves from 38 to 97 times the
sun-earth distance over its 560 year orbit.
A view of the solar system from the north down. The four circles
show the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The yellow
dot in the center is the sun. The earth, if it were shown, would be
inside the yellow dot representing the sun. The orbits of the two
outermost planets, along with their current positions, are also
shown. If you are worried because the sun appears to not be the
focus of the orbital ellipse you are very observant! But it is just a
projection effect.