# 2012 VP113
**2012 VP113** is a distant trans-Neptunian dwarf planet candidate whose perihelion distance of about 80 astronomical units (au) is among the farthest of any known [Solar System](https://www.edgepedia.org/solar-system) body, making it, together with Sedna, a member of the hypothesized inner [Oort cloud](https://www.edgepedia.org/oort-cloud). It was discovered by Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Chadwick Trujillo, then of the [Gemini Observatory](https://www.edgepedia.org/gemini-observatory), in images taken on 5 November 2012 with the Dark Energy Camera on the Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, and announced in March 2014 in *Nature*.[1](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140331.html) • [2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf) • [3](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/480464) The discovery team informally nicknamed the object "Biden" because of the VP in its provisional designation.[4](https://carnegiescience.edu/sites/carnegiescience.edu/files/YB13-14ComboForWeb2-13-15.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Discovery | 5 November 2012, by Scott S. Sheppard and Chadwick Trujillo with the Dark Energy Camera on the Blanco 4-m telescope; announced March 2014[1](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140331.html) • [2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf) |
| Orbit | Perihelion 80.6 au, semimajor axis about 267.5 au, eccentricity 0.699, inclination 24.0°, orbital period about 4,376 years (epoch June 2026)[5](https://theskylive.com/2012vp113-info) |
| Dynamical class | Second known inner Oort cloud object after Sedna; a "sednoid" that never comes near Neptune[6](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/446/4/3788/2892865) |
| Size | About 450 km in diameter assuming a moderate albedo, large enough to be a dwarf planet if composed largely of ice[2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf) |
| Population estimate | About 430 (+400/−240) inner Oort cloud objects brighter than r = 24.3, and roughly 900 (+800/−500) bodies larger than 1,000 km, expected to remain undiscovered[2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf) |
| Scientific legacy | Its argument of perihelion clustering prompted the proposal of an unseen super-Earth, later developed into the Planet Nine hypothesis[7](https://arxiv.org/abs/1404.0258) • [8](https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.10103) |
## Orbit and dynamical position
2012 VP113 follows an extremely elongated orbit. At epoch June 2026 the [JPL Small-Body Database](https://www.edgepedia.org/jpl-small-body-database) elements give a perihelion distance of 80.64 au, an aphelion of 454.4 au, a semimajor axis of 267.5 au, an eccentricity of 0.699, and an inclination of 24.0° to the ecliptic; the orbital period is about 4,376 years, with the next perihelion passage computed for August 6355.[5](https://theskylive.com/2012vp113-info) At discovery it had the most distant perihelion of any known object in the Solar System, exceeding Sedna's 76 au.[2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf) • [9](https://carnegiescience.edu/news/new-extremely-distant-solar-system-object-found-during-hunt-planet-x?field_divisions_departments_target_id_1=263)
Because its perihelion lies far beyond Neptune's orbit, 2012 VP113 does not dynamically interact with Neptune, and its orbit cannot be explained by present-day perturbations from the known planets. Dynamical studies place it, like Sedna, in the inner Oort cloud, a population of icy bodies on detached orbits at heliocentric distances of hundreds of au, distinct in origin from the [Kuiper belt](https://www.edgepedia.org/kuiper-belt) and the [scattered disc](https://www.edgepedia.org/scattered-disc).[6](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/446/4/3788/2892865) Before 2012 VP113 was found, Sedna had been the only confirmed member of this population, and its discovery confirmed that more such objects exist.[3](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/480464) • [6](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/446/4/3788/2892865)
## The discovery survey and the inner Oort cloud population
Sheppard and Trujillo surveyed 52 square degrees of sky to a depth of about magnitude 24.3 in the r band, sensitive to objects from 50 au to beyond 300 au. They identified 2012 VP113 in the new images and also recovered it in archival [Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope](https://www.edgepedia.org/canada-france-hawaii-telescope) images from 22 October 2011, giving an observational arc of more than two years, long enough for a secure orbit.[2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf)
The survey found no objects with perihelion distances between 50 and 75 au, even though such objects would have been brighter and easier to detect, suggesting a paucity of inner Oort cloud bodies in that range and a possible inner edge near 75 au. From their bias simulations the discoverers estimated that about 430 (+400/−240) inner Oort cloud objects brighter than r = 24.3 remain undiscovered across the sky, and that roughly 900 (+800/−500) bodies with diameters larger than 1,000 km exist, most of them extremely distant.[2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf) The object's surface colors are consistent with formation in the gas giant region of the Solar System rather than in the ultra-red dominated classical Kuiper belt, supporting the picture that it was scattered outward early in the Solar System's history.[2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf)
## Role in the Planet Nine hypothesis
**The clustering claim.** In their discovery paper, Trujillo and Sheppard reported that all known objects with semimajor axes greater than 150 au and perihelia beyond Neptune have arguments of perihelion, the angle ω between the perihelion point and the orbit's crossing of the ecliptic plane, clustered near ω ≈ 340° ± 55°, with none between 90° and 270°. They argued that no observational bias could produce this pattern, since a bias would affect ω = 0° and ω = 180° equally, and proposed that an unseen planetary perturber of 2 to 15 Earth masses in a circular, low-inclination orbit between 200 and 300 au could hold the arguments of perihelion in place through a Kozai-like libration for billions of years.[2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf) • [7](https://arxiv.org/abs/1404.0258) In their simulations, a 5-Earth-mass body at 210 au kept 2012 VP113 librating about ω = 0°, with the object spending only 3 percent of its time in the otherwise populated 90° to 270° range.[2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf)
**From super-Earth to Planet Nine.** In 2016, [Konstantin Batygin](https://www.edgepedia.org/konstantin-batygin) and [Michael E. Brown](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-e-brown) of the [California Institute of Technology](https://www.edgepedia.org/california-institute-of-technology) built on this line of evidence. Using six of the most distant objects, including Sedna and 2012 VP113, whose orbits are physically aligned in space, they argued for a planet of roughly 5 to 10 Earth masses on an orbit with a semimajor axis of 400 to 800 au, eccentricity 0.2 to 0.5, and inclination 15 to 25 degrees, the object now called Planet Nine.[8](https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.10103) • [10](https://time.com/4184942/planet-9-new-pluto-solar-system/)
**The clustering debate.** The clustering evidence has been contested. The [Outer Solar System Origins Survey](https://www.edgepedia.org/outer-solar-system-origins-survey) (OSSOS), which ran on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope from 2013 to 2017 and discovered more than 800 trans-Neptunian objects with carefully characterized detection biases, found that its eight large-semimajor-axis detections are statistically consistent with an underlying uniform angular distribution, and that survey pointing and weather patterns can create strong, non-intuitive biases in which orbital orientations are detected.[11](https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.05348) A 2021 analysis of 14 extreme trans-Neptunian objects from the [Dark Energy Survey](https://www.edgepedia.org/dark-energy-survey), OSSOS, and the Sheppard-Trujillo survey likewise found the detected objects consistent with a uniform parent population at significance levels between 17 and 94 percent, concluding that the sample provides no evidence for angular clustering.[12](https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.05601) Other researchers, including Brown and Batygin in a 2019 statistical analysis, have argued that the clustering is real with high probability, and the question remains open pending larger samples.[13](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0732-0)
## Later sednoids and what they test
2012 VP113 remained one of only two confirmed inner Oort cloud objects until the discovery of [2015 TG387](https://www.edgepedia.org/2015-tg387), reported by Sheppard, Trujillo, and David Tholen as the third known member of the population.[14](https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.00013) The fourth sednoid, [2023 KQ14](https://www.edgepedia.org/2023-kq14), nicknamed Ammonite, was announced in 2025 with a perihelion of 66 au and a semimajor axis of 252 au. Its orbit does not align with those of Sedna, 2012 VP113, and Leleākūhonua, which its discoverers interpret as lowering the likelihood of the [Planet Nine hypothesis](https://www.edgepedia.org/planet-nine-hypothesis), while simulations suggest the sednoids may have shared a primordial orbital clustering about 4.2 billion years ago.[15](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02595-7) • [16](https://www.livescience.com/space/planets/astronomers-discover-new-dwarf-planet-ammonite-and-it-could-upend-the-existence-of-planet-nine)
Each new distant object also constrains where a hidden planet could be. Ammonite's stable orbit favors larger semimajor axes, near 500 au, for a hypothetical perturber, and its perihelion of 66 au is the third largest among cataloged objects with semimajor axes beyond 200 au, after 2012 VP113's 80.6 au and Sedna's 76.3 au.[15](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02595-7)
## Physical properties
Assuming a moderate albedo, the discovery paper estimates a diameter of about 450 km, large enough for 2012 VP113 to be a dwarf planet if it is composed largely of ice; later estimates based on its absolute magnitude of about 4.1 give diameters near 500 to 600 km.[2](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf) • [17](https://www.spacereference.org/asteroid/2012-vp113) The object is currently near its closest approach to the Sun; in roughly 2,000 years it will be more than five times farther out, and it spends most of its millennia-long orbit near aphelion, beyond 450 au.[1](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140331.html) • [5](https://theskylive.com/2012vp113-info) Its faintness, magnitude about 23.4 at present, keeps it within reach only of the largest telescopes.[18](https://theskylive.com/2012vp113-tracker)
## References
1. [2012 VP113: A New Furthest Known Orbit in the Solar System, Astronomy Picture of the Day, NASA](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140331.html)
2. [Trujillo, C. A. & Sheppard, S. S. (2014). A Sedna-like body with a perihelion of 80 astronomical units. Nature 507, 471–474](https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/journal-club/Trujillo_and_Sheppard_2014.pdf)
3. [Solar System's edge redefined, EurekAlert (2014)](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/480464)
4. [Carnegie Science Year Book 2013–14, discovery images of 2012 VP113](https://carnegiescience.edu/sites/carnegiescience.edu/files/YB13-14ComboForWeb2-13-15.pdf)
5. [Asteroid 2012 VP113 orbital elements, TheSkyLive / JPL Small-Body Database](https://theskylive.com/2012vp113-info)
6. [Brasser, R. et al. (2014). Re-assessing the formation of the inner Oort cloud in an embedded star cluster II. MNRAS 446, 3788](https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/446/4/3788/2892865)
7. [de la Fuente Marcos, C. & de la Fuente Marcos, R. (2014). Planet X revamped after the discovery of the Sedna-like object 2012 VP113? arXiv:1404.0258](https://arxiv.org/abs/1404.0258)
8. [Batygin, K., Adams, F. C. & Brown, M. E. (2019). The Planet Nine Hypothesis. arXiv:1902.10103](https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.10103)
9. [New extremely distant Solar System object found during hunt for Planet X, Carnegie Science](https://carnegiescience.edu/news/new-extremely-distant-solar-system-object-found-during-hunt-planet-x?field_divisions_departments_target_id_1=263)
10. [New 'Planet 9' May Be Next to Join Our Solar System, TIME](https://time.com/4184942/planet-9-new-pluto-solar-system/)
11. [Shankman, C. et al. (2017). OSSOS VI. Striking Biases in the detection of large semimajor axis Trans-Neptunian Objects. arXiv:1706.05348](https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.05348)
12. [Napier, K. J. et al. (2021). No Evidence for Orbital Clustering in the Extreme Trans-Neptunian Objects. Planetary Science Journal 2, 59](https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.05601)
13. [Maltagliati, L. (2019). A statistically significant clustering. Nature Astronomy 3, 199](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0732-0)
14. [Sheppard, S. S. et al. (2018). A New High Perihelion Inner Oort Cloud Object: 2015 TG387. arXiv:1810.00013](https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.00013)
15. [Discovery and dynamics of a Sedna-like object with a perihelion of 66 au (2025). Nature Astronomy 9, 1309–1316](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02595-7)
16. [Astronomers discover new dwarf planet 'Ammonite', Live Science (2025)](https://www.livescience.com/space/planets/astronomers-discover-new-dwarf-planet-ammonite-and-it-could-upend-the-existence-of-planet-nine)
17. [Asteroid 2012 VP113, Space Reference](https://www.spacereference.org/asteroid/2012-vp113)
18. [Asteroid 2012 VP113 Live Position Tracker, TheSkyLive](https://theskylive.com/2012vp113-tracker)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Extraterrestrial places › Small bodies of the Solar System › Kuiper belt and trans-Neptunian objects*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 15, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license