And if it weren’t for a heavy snowfall, things might have turned out differently.

At the center of this discovery is Dr. Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, DC.



“This is hot off the presses.” Dr. Scott Sheppard, Carnegie Institute for Science, Washington DC.





If you recognize that name, it’s because Dr. Sheppard has been in the news. Discovering far-flung planets in our Solar System is what Sheppard does, and he’s pretty good at it. Back in October 2018, Sheppard led a team that discovered ‘The Goblin,’ (TG387) a planet way out there on the fringes of our Solar System.

When the Goblin was discovered, one of Sheppard’s team members was David Tholen from the University of Hawaii. When the discovery was made, Tholen said, “We think there could be thousands of small bodies like 2015 TG387 out on the Solar System’s fringes, but their distance makes finding them very difficult.”

Since Tholen’s prophetic statement, two more have been found.

First, FarOut was discovered. Far Out is a distant planet about 120 AUs away, and preliminary measurements say it’s about 500 km in diameter. It’s other name is 2018 VG18.

This brings us to the heavy snowfall.