These four panels show the location of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/trans-Neptunian_object" class="extiw" title="en:trans-Neptunian object">trans-Neptunian object</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90377_Sedna" class="extiw" title="en:90377 Sedna">90377 Sedna</a>, which lies in the farthest reaches of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system" class="extiw" title="en:Solar system">Solar system</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> Each panel, moving clockwise from the upper left, successively zooms out to place Sedna in context.
<p>The first panel shows the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/orbits" class="extiw" title="en:orbits">orbits</a> of the inner <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/planet" class="extiw" title="en:planet">planets</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(planet)" class="extiw" title="en:Jupiter (planet)">Jupiter</a>; and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/asteroid_belt" class="extiw" title="en:asteroid belt">asteroid belt</a>.
</p><p>In the second panel, Sedna is shown well outside the orbits of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_(planet)" class="extiw" title="en:Neptune (planet)">Neptune</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt" class="extiw" title="en:Kuiper belt">Kuiper belt</a> objects.
</p><p>Sedna's full orbit is illustrated in the third panel along with the object's location in 2004, nearing its closest approach to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun" class="extiw" title="en:Sun">Sun</a>.
</p>
The final panel zooms out much farther, showing that even this large <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ellipse" class="extiw" title="en:ellipse">elliptical orbit</a> falls inside what was previously thought to be the inner edge of the spherical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud" class="extiw" title="en:Oort cloud">Oort cloud</a>: a distribution of cold, icy bodies lying at the limits of the Sun's gravitational pull. Sedna's presence suggests that the previously speculated inner disk on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ecliptic" class="extiw" title="en:ecliptic">ecliptic</a> does exist.
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Adi" title="User:Adi">Adi</a>, oryg. <a class="external free" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oort_cloud_Sedna_orbit.svg?uselang=pl">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oort_cloud_Sedna_orbit.svg?uselang=pl</a>
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<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>