Astronomers Saw This Mysterious Object Dancing In Rhythm With Neptune

A team of astronomers recently discovered a mysterious object in the outer solar system that is in a resonant orbit with Neptune. This object, named 2020 VN40, orbits the Sun every time Neptune completes ten orbits, and it's the first of its kind.

2020 VN40 belongs to a class of distant solar system objects called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). It was discovered by the Large inclination Distant Objects (LiDO) survey, which used the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Gemini Observatory, and Magellan Blade to find objects that had orbits that reach way above and below Earth's solar orbit. While the survey has found 140 such objects, 2020 VN40 is the most remarkable.


What makes 2020 VN40 fascinating is its movement relative to Neptune. Typically, most TNOs that follow a simple orbital pattern compared to Neptune come closest to the Sun when Neptune is far away. However, 2020 VN40 is different; it comes closest to the Sun when Neptune is also nearby (relatively speaking, of course).

Additionally, it has a very strong tilt, making its average distance 140 times farther from the sun than Earth. Because of this tilt, 2020 VN40 appears near Neptune on a flat map. In reality, though, it's far away, below our solar system. That's special because other TNOs usually do not appear close to Neptune, even on a flattened map.


Ruth Murray-Clar, a co-author of this study, describes the unique orbital pattern as "finding a hidden rhythm in a song we thought we knew." She adds, "It could change the way we think about how distant objects move." Clearly, the 2020 VN40's discovery is a major step towards understanding how objects come to reside in the outer solar system.

Top Image Credit: Harvard