Space object named 'FarFarOut' is the most distant thing in solar system
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The story behind how it got its nickname is interesting
Yep, that's the name and the space object 'FarFarOut' is Really far away in our solar system. For comparisan, Pluto takes 246 years to complete one orbit around the Sun. This alone tells us how far Pluto is. But FarFarOut takes 800 years to take a single round trip around the Sun! That means last time FarFarOut was where it today is, Genghis Khan was expanding its empire in Asia and was knocking on the doors of Europe.
FarFarOut is 132 astronomical units away from the Sun (1 astronomical unit = 150 million kilometres) and is just 400 kilometres across (250 miles) in size. It was discovered in 2018.
The story behind how it got its nickname is funny.
Before its discovery, another very distant space object was discovered in 2018. It was 124 astronomical units away from the Sun. The object was really far out, and a surprised exclamation from Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science gave it a nickname Farout.
And what's more distant than Farout? Yep. FarFarOut!
The distances involved in studying FarFarout are so huge that constant astronomical observations are needed to take place for several years just to plot its trajectory.
Talking about trajectory, FarFarOut has a weird orbit around the Sun. It is wildly oval. At its furthest, FarFarOut is 175 astronomical units away from the Sun while at its nearest, it is 27 astronomical units away.
Scientists think that Neptune's gravity is the reason why FarFarOut has such a wild orbit around the Sun.
It is expected that more interaction between Neptune and FarFarOut is likely in the future.