Kuiper Belt

A plutoid is a dwarf planet with an orbit outside that of Neptune. Plutoids are sometimes also referred to as "ice dwarfs" due to their diminutive size and cold surface temperatures. After the discovery of Sedna in 2003 future objects similar to Sedna will be called "Sednoids".  The three objects with an outstandingly high perihelion (closest to the Sun) are Sedna, 2012 VP113, and Leleākūhonua. Sedna and 2012 VP113 are distant detached objects with perihelia greater than 70 Astronomical Units (AU).  

Before Leleākūhonua earned an official name in 2020, the dwarf planet was nicknamed The Goblin. At the most distant point in its orbit, it strays about 2,300 AU away from the sun. It lies twice as far as beyond Pluto and traces a long orbit around the sun, with one year on the body lasting about 40,000 Earth years. Leleākūhonua is at 65 AU at its perihelion. This isn't the most distant perihelion. Oort Cloud Sednoid objects, 2012 VP113 and Sedna, claim that honor at 80 and 76 AU respectively.  For astrological associations Leleākūhonua describes a bird, whose flight route Polynesian sailors followed to find land. That seems like a good direction to look. 

The outer planets show evidence of interaction with plutoids. Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, is likely a captured plutoid, and it is even possible that the odd tilt of Uranus on its axis is due to a collision with a plutoid. Similarly to dwarf planets, there are potentially hundreds of plutoid objects in the solar system that have yet to be given official status.

In 2006 an official definition of "Planet" was created. Dwarf planets are worlds that are too small to be considered full-fledged planets, but too large to fall into smaller categories.  Astronomers estimate that there could be as many as 200 dwarf planets in the solar system and the Kuiper Belt. 

As of 2014, the IAU recognized five named dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake. But those aren't the only ones. Other solar system bodies that are possibly dwarf planets include Sedna and Quaoar, small worlds far beyond Pluto's orbit, and 2012 VP113, an object that is thought to have one of the most distant orbits found beyond the known edge of our solar system. 

The Oort Cloud is a predicted collection of icy objects farther away than everything else in the solar system. It fits with observations of comets in the planetary region of the solar system, but scientists have yet to observe any object in the Oort Cloud itself. It is believed that the Oort Cloud composed of billions of cold icy objects is an immense spherical cloud surrounding our solar system. This is where long-term comets come from, those entering the inner reaches of our solar system only once in their lifetimes. They can enter the solar system plane from any angle, whereas comets coming from the Kuiper belt are short-term comets, which generally come in toward the sun from the plane of the Kuiper Belt. The Oort Cloud is considered to be the outer limits of our solar system. The existence of the Oort Cloud was first hypothesized in 1950 by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort. In 1992, humanity’s view of the solar system began to expand again when astronomers found another object in Pluto’s neighborhood, 1992 QB1, now named Albion. The next year, 5 more such worlds were discovered. By the turn of the millennium, more than 200 worlds were known to travel within the Kuiper belt—the region of our solar system beyond Neptune that stretches from Neptune’s orbit at 30 AU to a sharp edge at 50 AU.

Space probes have yet to reach the area of the Oort Cloud. Voyager 1, the fastest and farthest of the interplanetary space probes currently leaving the Solar System, will reach the Oort Cloud in about 300 years and would take about 30,000 years to pass through it.

Discovered in 2002, Quaoar is a planetoid that lies beyond Pluto's orbit in the solar system. Its discovery in 2002, as well as subsequent discoveries of other small worlds, led to a new classification and the redefinition of Pluto as a "dwarf planet." Quaoar is greater in volume than all known asteroids in the Kuiper Belt combined, massive enough to be considered a dwarf planet, but it has not been classified as such yet.

It is about 42 Astronomical Units, or Earth-sun distances, away. That's about 4 billion miles (6 billion km), a billion kilometers more distant than Neptune. It takes about 288 years for Quaoar to go once around the sun in a roughly circular orbit.
 

Quaoar has a tiny moon named for the sky god Weywot, son of Quaoar. The moon is estimated to have only one two-thousandth the mass of its parent. Weywot is likely the result of a collision with Quaoar and another object.
 

Quaoar impels us to release destructive tendencies and to surrender to the natural order of life. Based on Quaoar's stable, circular, and harmonious orbit, the astronomy and astrology of its orbital parameters, and its myth, returns us to the "sacredness of life." All things in life are sacred and it is our responsibility to have respect for natural order and to live in harmony with that order. Quaoar imparts a strong humanitarian influence and impels us to establish societal order, or it may impel a "harmonious revolution" to defend the natural world or activism regarding issues of ecology, human rights, the animal kingdom, or life in general.

Quaoar's chart placement may also indicate where, how. and if we have a particular sensitivity to chaotic conditions imparting a drive to establish order or create greater harmony and balance.

Orcus was discovered in 2004. It is a plutino, a trans-Neptunian object with a large moon that is locked in a 2:3 resonance with the ice giant Neptune, making two revolutions around the Sun to every three of Neptune's. Orcus' orbital plane's orientation in our solar system is tilted in the opposite direction from Pluto's. Orcus is clearly Pluto's compliment. Orcus is like an anti-Pluto. The two objects always remain across the Solar System from each other.  In accordance with the IAU’s astronomical conventions, objects with a similar size and orbit to that of Pluto are to be named after underworld deities. Therefore, the discovery team suggested the name Orcus, after the Etruscan god of the underworld and the equivalent of the Roman god Pluto.

With a diameter of 910 km (570 mi), it is a possible dwarf planet. However, until they are officially classified, the terms Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) and Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO) are commonly used. This is certainly true of Orcus.  Although Orcus has not yet been officially categorized as a dwarf planet by the IAU, many astronomers agree that it meets all the requirements and will be in the future.

The surface of Orcus is relatively bright with albedo reaching 23 percent, neutral in color, and rich in water ice. The ice is predominantly in crystalline form, which may be related to past cryovolcanic activity. Other compounds like methane or ammonia may also be present on its surface.

The discovery and naming of Orcus in 2004 brings to astrology a second planet representing the Roman god of the underworld, and an enigma as difficult to discern as the underworld itself. Like the true god of the underworld he is, Orcus lurked in the background, giving few clues to his real nature while we were preoccupied with other things. By early 2005 the similarities between Pluto and Orcus were easy to spot. The differences are not as easy. After several decades of observing Pluto, we know that the Pluto experience at the core is one of death, rebirth, transformation, and regeneration. One theory is that Orcus, when handled constructively, governs accessing and bringing forward the spiritual wealth from the core of one is being.  

For the last 3,000 years Orcus and Pluto never get closer to each other than approximately 51° (a septile), and never get further away from each other than approximately 150° (a quincunx).  Our gods of the underworld are dancing a stately minuet. 

Sedna has been said to be in several astronomical classifications. Many astronomers have suggested that it, together with a few other objects (e.g. 2000 CR105), be placed in a new category of distant objects named extended scattered disc objects (E-SDO).  As of 2019, Sedna was about 84.7 AU from the Sun. Eris, the most massive-known dwarf planet, is currently farther from the Sun than Sedna at 96.0 AU - 96 times farther from the Sun than Earth.  

In 2003 discoverer of Sedna, Mike Brown and his colleagues. described it as the first observed body belonging to the Oort cloud, the hypothetical cloud of comets thought to exist nearly a light-year from the Sun. They observed that, unlike scattered disc objects (SDO) such as Eris, Sedna's perihelion (76 AU) is too distant for it to have been scattered by the gravitational influence of Neptune. It is a great deal closer to the Sun than was expected for an Oort Cloud object and has an inclination roughly in line with the planets and the Kuiper Belt. The planetoid is described as being an "inner Oort Cloud object", situated in the disc reaching from the Kuiper Belt to the spherical part of the cloud.

Sedna is 8 billion miles away from the Sun, about three times further than Pluto. Its orbit is an extreme ellipse.  Sedna moves through half of the zodiac signs during its perihelion (close pass to the Sun) in about 1,500 years, which means at the other end of its elliptical orbit, the aphelion furthest away from the Sun when Sedna is moving at its slowest, Sedna takes about 9,000 years to go through the other six signs of the zodiac.  It takes 10,500 years for the total orbit. Sedna's transit through Sagittarius is around 2,000 years plus or minus a few years, while Sedna moves through Sagittarius's opposite sign, Gemini, in less than 25 years. Other planetary bodies in highly elliptical 10,000-year plus orbits would also have a similar pattern. It was in 27 Taurus in Jan 2020 and will enter Gemini for the first time in 2023.

Varying legends give different rationales for Sedna's death. Yet, in each version, her father takes her to sea in his kayak, chopping off her fingers. In each version she sinks to the bottom of the sea and is worshiped by hunters who depend on her goodwill to supply food. She is generally considered a vengeful goddess, and hunters must placate and pray to her to release the sea animals from the ocean depths for their hunt.