2012 VP113 is the minor planet with the farthest known perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) in the Solar System, greater than Sedna's.[13] Though its perihelion is farther, 2012 VP113 has an aphelion only about half of Sedna's. It is the second discovered sednoid, with semi-major axis beyond 150 AU and perihelion greater than 50 AU. The similarity of the orbit of 2012 VP113 to other known extreme trans-Neptunian objects led Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo to suggest that an undiscovered object, Planet Nine, in the outer Solar System is shepherding these distant objects into similar type orbits.[10]
It has an absolute magnitude of 4.0,[1] which means it may be large enough to be a dwarf planet.[14] It is expected to be about half the size of Sedna and similar in size to Huya.[8] Its surface is thought to have a pink tinge, resulting from chemical changes produced by the effect of radiation on frozen water, methane, and carbon dioxide.[15] This optical color is consistent with formation in the gas-giant region and not the classical Kuiper belt, which is dominated by ultra-red colored objects.[10]
Discovery images taken on 5 November 2012. A merger of three discovery images, the red, green and blue dots on the image represent 2012 VP113's location on each of the images, taken two hours apart from each other.
2012 VP113 was abbreviated "VP" and nicknamed "Biden" by the discovery team, after Joe Biden who was the vice president ("VP") of the United States in 2012.[12]
2012 VP113 has the largest perihelion distance of any known object in the Solar System.[17] Its last perihelion was within a couple months of September 1979.[5] The paucity of bodies with perihelia at 50–75 AU appears not to be an observational artifact.[10]
It is possibly a member of a hypothesized Hills cloud.[8][16][18] It has a perihelion, argument of perihelion, and current position in the sky similar to those of Sedna.[8] In fact, all known Solar System bodies with semi-major axes over 150 AU and perihelia greater than Neptune's have arguments of perihelion clustered near 340°±55°.[10] This could indicate a similar formation mechanism for these bodies.[10](148209) 2000 CR105 was the first such object discovered.
It is currently unknown how 2012 VP113 acquired a perihelion distance beyond the Kuiper belt. The characteristics of its orbit, like those of Sedna's, have been explained as possibly created by a passing star or a trans-Neptunian planet of several Earth masses hundreds of astronomical units from the Sun.[19] The orbital architecture of the trans-Plutonian region may signal the presence of more than one planet.[20][21]2012 VP113 could even be captured from another planetary system.[14] However, it is considered more likely that the perihelion of 2012 VP113 was raised by multiple interactions within the crowded confines of the open star cluster in which the Sun formed.[8]
Simulated view showing the orbit of 2012 VP113
2012 VP113 orbit in white with hypothetical Planet Nine
The orbits of known distant objects with large aphelion distances over 200 AU
^de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl (1 September 2014). "Extreme trans-Neptunian objects and the Kozai mechanism: signalling the presence of trans-Plutonian planets". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. 443 (1): L59–L63. arXiv:1406.0715. Bibcode:2014MNRAS.443L..59D. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slu084.
