Discovery and dynamics of a Sedna-like object with a perihelion of 66 au
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with large perihelion distances (q > 60 au) and semi-major axes (a > 200 au) provide insights into the early evolution of the Solar System and the existence of a hypothetical distant planet. These objects are challenging to observe, and thus their detections are still rare, yet they play a crucial role in constraining models of Solar System formation. Here we report the discovery of a Sedna-like TNO, 2023 KQ14, nicknamed ‘Ammonite’, with q = 66 au, a = 252 au and inclination i = 11°. The orbit of Ammonite does not align with those of the other Sedna-like objects and fills the previously unexplained ‘q-gap’ in the observed distribution of distant Solar System objects. Simulations demonstrate that Ammonite is dynamically stable over 4.5 Gyr. Our analysis suggests that Ammonite and the other Sedna-like objects may have shared a primordial orbital clustering around 4.2 Ga. Furthermore, the stable orbit of Ammonite favours larger orbits (~500 au) rather than closer ones for a large hypothetical planet in present-day trans-Neptunian space. The discovery of 2023 KQ14, a Sedna-like object with a perihelion of 66 au, fills a gap in the known population. Its orbit does not align with other Sedna-like objects, shedding light on the diversity and dynamical history of the outer Solar System.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".