The planet, coded 2007OR10, was discovered in 2007 by three astronomers on the far edge of the solar system, outside Neptune’s orbit. It is one of the reddest celestial bodies found in the Kuiper Belt in the solar system, and it rotates around the sun in an elliptical orbit. Its estimated diameter is1,230 km, and its weight is only 2.4 percent that of the moon. It rotates very slowly, with a period of 44.81 hours.
The official naming was produced through an online vote in 2019 launched by one of its discoverers, and Gonggong 共工,the Chinese water god, with red hair, the head of a human and the body of a snake, won the competition. The satellite of the planet was named after Xiangliu 相柳, a Chinese minister of Gonggong.
CAS news release, March 3, 2020
