February 13, 2021

Farfarout (2018 AG37) seen on January 15, 2018, by the Subaru telescope (Image courtesy S. Sheppard)

A team of astronomers announced that they obtained observations confirming that 2018 AG37, nicknamed Farfarout, is the most distant object from the Sun within the solar system. Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and his colleagues Chad Trujillo and David Tholen are specialists in researching objects in the Kuiper Belt and had identified this object already in 2018. However, it’s so far away that there were uncertainties about its measurements. and only now have astronomers announced that it’s currently at a distance from the Sun estimated at 132 times the Earth’s. Its distance exceeds that of 2018 VG18, nicknamed Farout, discovered by the same astronomers.