ByJamie Carter,
Senior Contributor.
Beyond Neptune is the Kuiper Belt, a doughnut-shaped region icy bodies and dwarf planets often called Trans-Neptunian Objects. Most famously, there’s Pluto, but also Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong and Arrokoth. About 80 have been found, with potentially thousands more, but humanity’s ever more powerful telescopes and techniques.
Another has just been found and, impossibly, it appears to have an atmosphere. Called 2002 XV93, this small object in the far reaches of the solar system may possess a thin atmosphere, despite being far too small to sustain one according to current scientific theories.
Scientists have long believed that only the largest TNOs, such as Pluto, could maintain atmospheres due to their stronger gravity and volatile-rich surfaces. Pluto’s thin, tenuous atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide is around 100,000 times less dense than Earth’s.
