139 (!) Planets discovered at the end of the solar system – Science

Astronomers made a rare discovery on the edge of our solar system: 139 new planets include 316 planets.

Now that the world is sinking into a state of forced pause, we turn our gaze to the universe. The discoveries do not stop there for the time being.

Pennsylvania University astronomers have discovered an amazing amount of 139 planets at the end of our solar system, including numerous minor planets. These are twice as far from the sun as Pluto.

Rare Finds: Faint objects are difficult to locate

They managed the sighting with the Dark Energy Survay, a survey of the southern sky for faint objects.

The search makes it more difficult that these are so faint. So far, only 3,300 transneptunical objects have been found. Astronomers estimate that there are still tens of thousands of other objects with a diameter of 100 kilometers.

These are difficult to track down with a telescope. “How many transneptunians you can find depends on how large the section of the sky is and how dark is the faintest object you can barely see,” explains Gary Bernstein of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

316 new objects are said to bring knowledge about dark energy

The search is carried out with a 520 megapixel camera that scans large sections of the sky for these objects. The search is primarily intended to provide more information about dark energy in distant galaxies. The astronomers evaluated the current data with more than seven billion weak light points within four years. This enabled them to identify 316 new objects in several steps, including 139 small planets and large chunks of ice. Some of the objects are within Pluto’s orbit.