Distant Object Could Hold Secrets to Earth's Past

By Guy Gugliotta

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 14, 2005; Page A06

When the icy red world called Sedna edged into the solar system from the shadows of deep space, astronomers marveled at its unexpected arrival even as they wondered at its origins. Where did it come from? And why was it there?

A year after its public debut, Sedna remains an enigma in search of an explanation.

It is the most distant object in the solar system ever identified -- traveling around the sun every 10,500 years in a highly elliptical orbit that keeps it 7 billion to 93 billion miles from Earth. Nothing else that far out has ever been seen.

>> A long way out. You may want to read the whole article. - LRK -