THE discovery of a possible tenth planet in our solar system has excited scientists in Swindon.

Called Sedna, after an Inuit sea goddess, the planet is the most distant known member of the solar system and is eight billion miles from the sun. Earth is 149 million miles from the sun.

The 1,100-mile wide object was first spotted on Novem-ber 14 from a telescope in California. But there are doubts over whether it is a planet or just a large rock.

Peter Barratt, a spokesman for the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Coun-cil, based at North Star, in Swindon said: "This is fantastic and important discovery and shows how fast science is progressing.

"A few days ago we all thought there were nine planets in the solar system and now there could be ten.

"Although PPARC has not played a role in its discovery so far, some of our funded telescopes may soon be pointing in Sedna's direction."

Philip Perkins, an amateur astronomer from Ramsbury, said: "At the moment we are waiting to find out whether it really is a planet.

"It is so distant I believe they needed a space-based telescope to see it.

"But the problem is that this object is in an area where there are many similar objects many comets come from this part of the solar system.

"It has taken a long time to find it. The last major planetary discovery was Pluto in the 1930s."

Sedna is believed to orbit the sun every 10,500 years and it may also have a moon.