Click here for some discussion on Orcus, a planet/planetoid that orbits at times closer to the sun than Pluto
"... Early in 2004, before Sedna, astronomers Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz announced they had found yet another large body using the telescope at the Palomar Observatory outside San Diego.
The mysterious object received the official scientific designation of 2004 DW. It appears to travel an elliptical orbit around the Sun, bringing it as close as 2.7 billion miles from the Sun and sending it as far out as 4.7 billion miles from the Sun. By comparison, Earth is a mere 93 million miles from the Sun.
It probably takes Orcus some 252 years to complete its orbit around the Sun.
Since 2001, Brown's team has found more than three dozen bright Kuiper Belt objects while surveying the outer range of the Solar System – first with the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Mountain in Southern California from Fall 2001, then with the Palomar QUEST camera from Summer 2003.
Orcus was announced in February 2004 and Sedna was announced in March 2004.
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