• Included in the Anniversaries List.
• But a lot of minor planets (official and as-yet unofficial) have also been found recently in our own Solar System. One of the most intriguing to me is Sedna.

Martin Winfree

November 14, 2012

There has been a lot in the news about all of the new exo-planets around other stars, and they are cool, no doubt about it. But a lot of minor planets (official and as-yet unofficial) have also been found recently in our own Solar System. One of the most intriguing to me is Sedna (another one that is nearly as big as Pluto); today is the ninth anniversary of its discovery. Sedna is so far away that it is basically dumb luck that astronomers spotted it at all. If the picture comes in, the tiny little cluster of orbits in the upper corner are those of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto; the big one is the orbit of Sedna, which takes 11,400 years to complete – the red dot is where it is now. At its apogee, Sedna will be nearly 1,000 times farther from the Sun than the earth. Is that something or what?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90377_Sedna