A white arrow points to a faint object detected by chance in 2006 as astronomers scanned the skies for distant supernovae.

The object, which resembles a tailless comet, traces a long, elliptical orbit that takes it as much as 150 billion miles (241 billion kilometers) from Earth, astronomers announced in August 2008.

The object, dubbed 2006 SQ372, is a kind of tailless comet that’s currently some two billion miles (three billion kilometers) from Earth, a bit closer to the sun than Neptune.

But the lump of ice and rock is moving on a long, elliptical orbit that will take it on a round-trip journey lasting about 22,500 years. Read more…

According to Brian Handwerk

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Posted By: ashley | Aug 21st

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