Back in 2006 Pluto, which for years was considered our 9^th planet, was demoted due to a new definition of what a planet actually is.

What Is a Planet Today?

According to the new definition, a full-fledged planet is an object that orbits the sun and is large enough to have become round due to the force of its own gravity. In addition, a planet has to dominate the neighborhood around its orbit.

Pluto has been demoted because it does not dominate its neighborhood. Charon, its large "moon," is only about half the size of Pluto, while all the true planets are far larger than their moons.

The New Kid In Town

But not to worry because there are a couple of new bodies even further from our world than Pluto is.

It’s too soon to term the new discovery as a planet because it’s orbit and size have yet to be calculated.

Many scientists say the odds that there is a “Planet Nine” out there somewhere is about 85 percent.

FarFarOut Is Further Out

The new discovery is called “FarFarOut” because there is already a “FarOut” body discovered previously that can’t be defined as a planet yet.

FarFarOut is a body that’s the furthest distance from our sun yet recorded. Pluto is 39.5 astronomical units from our sun while FarFarOut is 140 AU’s.

In fact from the time Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930 until it was demoted in 2006 it had yet to make one full revolution around the sun.

Captain Kirk and Spock will have to put their warp drive in overdrive to make it to this new discovery.

Some Final Thoughts

I guess finding all these celestial bodies is all well and good but the chances of anyone from Earth actually visiting them is a long way off.

Distances in space are inconceivable for us to even begin to comprehend. Speed of Light? Millions of light years? We can’t even go over 80 on our freeways.

It takes days just to get to the moon let alone Mars or Venus.

We’re on the Hawaiian Islands with no boats or planes wondering how to get to LA.

But we should keep trying. What the human mind can comprehend we can make happen.

(Source)