ICE PLANET ; Biggest thing in solar system since Pluto

ASTRONOMERS have found a 1,100-mile wide ball of ice and snow orbiting the outer limits of the solar system.

The sphere 4.4 billion miles from earth – named 2004 DW – is beyond ninth and furthest planet Pluto.

The planetoid – the largest object found in the solar system since Pluto was spotted in 1930 – takes 252 years to complete one orbit of the sun. Mike Brown, the California Institute of Technology astronomer who found it, said: “We simply look for things that move. Even things that are four billion miles away move. They move very little but it’s enough.” The ice planet was discovered with the 48- inch telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory outside San Diego.

Preliminary observations suggest it is 10 per cent larger than 800-mile-wide Quaoar found in 2002.

Mr Brown added: “Right now it looks like it could be bigger than Quaoar, which would put it bigger than anything,”