As an indication of just how much the final frontier is still frontier-like, consider that astronomers have not yet definitively charted our solar system. We know now where the planets (and Pluto) are at any given moment, but discovering other objects, not as large as a planet but still quite large, is not at all uncommon. Not long ago, for instance, a rock of about 1,000 miles in diameter was found floating on the outside of the solar system, the largest discovery since Pluto in 1930.

On this day, November 14, in 2003, an astronomic survey group comprised of Mike Brown (from Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory) and David Rabinowitz (Yale University), found one of the most distant orbiting objects in our solar system.

Aside from the scientific designation, the scientists wanted to give it a name reflective of its location. On the Caltech website Mike Brown expained the meaning of Sedna: “Our newly discovered object is the coldest most distant place known in the Solar System, so we feel it is appropriate to name it in honor of Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea, who is thought to live at the bottom of the frigid Arctic Ocean.”