New planet found in solar system

Published on 15/03/2004 00:00

Scientists have discovered what they believe to be a tenth planet in the solar system.

The frozen planet, named Sedna after the Inuit goddess of the sea, is around 1250 miles in diameter and has a highly elliptical orbit that takes over 10,000 years to complete, taking it up to 84 billion miles from the sun. At an average 6.2 billion miles away, it is the most distant object to orbit the sun.

The planet's existence is expected to be confirmed by NASA at a press conference today.

Sedna was discovered by scientists from the California Institute of Technology's Palomar observatory near San Diego, and was confirmed by sightings from the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.

There is likely to be debate over whether Sedna is really a planet at all. Pluto, the ninth planet, was discovered in 1930 and there is still debate over whether it should be called a planet.