SEDNA
Sedna, officially known as 90377 Sedna, is a trans-Neptunian object, discovered by Mike Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory) and David L. Rabinowitz (Yale University) on November 14, 2003. Its discovery was the farthest distance at which any natural object in the solar system has ever been observed. Sedna is described as a cold planetoid, perhaps as large as two-thirds the size of Pluto and is accepted as some to be the tenth planet.
Sedna's Orbit
Sedna has a highly elliptical orbit, with its aphelion estimated at 942 AU and its perihelion at about 76.1 AU. At its discovery, it was about 90 AU from the Sun, approaching perihelion. This is the furthest from the Sun that any solar system object has been observed, although some objects like long-period comets originally observed at closer distances may currently be further from the Sun than Sedna but are too dim to be observable. For comparison, the average distance of Pluto from the Sun is about 40 AU. Sedna's orbit takes about 11,487 years. It will reach perihelion in 2075 or 2076.
Sedna's Discovery
Sedna was discovered during a survey conducted with the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California (USA) and was observed within days on telescopes from Chile, Spain, and the USA (Arizona, and Hawaii). NASA's orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope was also pointed toward the object, but could not detect it — putting an upper-bound on its diameter at roughly three-quarters that of Pluto. Because of its cold, distant nature, and because all other planets of the Solar system are named after (Roman and Greek) gods, the scientists who discovered it unofficially named it after Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea, who was believed to live in the cold depths of the Arctic Ocean.
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