00:00 On this day in space.
00:03 In 1992, astronomers spotted an object orbiting the sun beyond Pluto for the very first time.
00:09 Before then, Pluto was believed to be the most distant planetary body of our solar system.
00:13 No one had seen anything orbiting farther out because these so-called trans-Neptunian objects
00:17 were far too faint to detect with the technology they had at the time.
00:20 With new digital imaging techniques, astronomers were able to spot a new and tiny world
00:24 orbiting 4 billion miles beyond Neptune.
00:27 Officially designated 1992 QB1, this 100-mile-wide object was thousands of times fainter than Pluto.
00:33 Now astronomers have confirmed more than 2,000 objects orbiting out there in what is now known as the Kuiper Belt.
00:39 And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:42 [ ♪ ]
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