So close, yet so far away

Astronomers discover a binary system that boasts the widest separation known in the solar system

Long-distance relationships are tough enough when partners are a continent apart. Consider the plight of two solar system bodies separated by a distance more than 20 times as great.

Astronomers have found such a partnership: two equal-mass members of the Kuiper belt, the reservoir of frozen objects beyond Neptune, that are gravitationally bound to each other but separated by more than 100,000 kilometers.