Subaru Telescope Discovers "Fossil" of the Early Solar System
The Subaru Telescope has revealed a fourth member of the sednoids, a group of small bodies with peculiar orbits around the outer edge of the Solar System that includes Sedna. The new object, officially designated 2023 KQ14, has been nicknamed "Ammonite" by the research team. Numerical simulations using computational resources including the PC Cluster of National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) indicate that it has maintained a stable orbit since the early stages of the Solar System's formation. Ammonite is expected to serve as a "fossil" preserving memories of the Solar System's infancy. It may provide clues to the existence of the hypothetical Planet Nine and the origins of the Solar System. (July 15, 2025, Press Release)