Mysterious 'exiled' asteroid found in far reaches of solar system

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “The reflectance spectrum of 2004 EW95 was clearly distinct from the other observed outer solar system objects,” said Dr Tom Seccull, another Queen’s University Belfast researcher and lead author of the study describing the new asteroid. Despite its distant location, the scientists think understanding more about 2004 EW95 will help them understand the turbulent early days of our solar system. “Given 2004 EW95’s present-day abode in the icy outer reaches of the solar system, this implies that it has been flung out into its present orbit by a migratory planet in the early days of the solar system,” said Dr Seccull. “The discovery of a carbonaceous asteroid in the Kuiper Belt is a key verification of one of the fundamental predictions of dynamical models of the early solar system.” The lack of fellow asteroids from the inner solar system does not mean 2004 EW95 is alone – it simply exemplifies the difficulty in observing objects that are so far away, even with the very best technology available.