A team of astronomers has identified 2020 VN40, a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) exhibiting a unique orbital resonance with Neptune. This object completes one orbit around the Sun for every ten orbits of Neptune, marking it as the first confirmed TNO in such a 10:1 resonance.
The discovery was made by the Large Inclination Distant Objects (LiDO) survey, which utilizes the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope, Gemini Observatory, and Magellan Baade Telescope to detect distant objects in the outer solar system. The survey focuses on identifying bodies with orbits that extend far above and below the plane of Earth's orbit, regions that have been less extensively studied.
2020 VN40's orbit is notably tilted, averaging approximately 140 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. This inclination results in the object appearing to come close to Neptune during its closest approach to the Sun, despite being far below the plane of the solar system. This behavior differs from other known resonant TNOs, which typically avoid such alignments at their closest approach to the Sun.
Lead researcher Rosemary Pike from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian stated, "This is a big step in understanding the outer solar system. It shows that even very distant regions influenced by Neptune can contain objects, and it gives us new clues about how the solar system evolved." The findings were published in The Planetary Science Journal.
The LiDO survey has already discovered over 140 distant objects, and with the advent of powerful new telescopes like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, astronomers anticipate uncovering many more objects with similar unique orbital characteristics, further enhancing our understanding of the solar system's formation and evolution.