Image:Oort cloud Sedna orbit.jpg

These four panels show the location of trans-Neptunian object 90377 Sedna, which lies in the farthest reaches of the Solar system. Each panel, moving clockwise from the upper left, successively zooms out to place Sedna in context.

The first panel shows the orbits of the inner planets and Jupiter; and the asteroid belt.

In the second panel, Sedna is shown well outside the orbits of Neptune and the Kuiper belt objects.

Sedna's full orbit is illustrated in the third panel along with the object's location in 2004, nearing its closest approach to the Sun.

The final panel zooms out much farther, showing that even this large elliptical orbit falls inside what was previously thought to be the inner edge of the spherical Oort cloud: a distribution of cold, icy bodies lying at the limits of the Sun's gravitational pull. Sedna's presence suggests that the previously speculated inner disk on the ecliptic does exist.

[1] [2] Splitzer Space Telescope Released Images about Sedna

March 15, 2004

Image courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt

Original text courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech

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