Object found with unexplained orbit at solar system's edge

We've grown accustomed to hearing about interesting Kuiper Belt Objects and the possibility that some of the worlds on the edge of the solar system might have been 'captured' from passing stars... but researchers are now being confronted with a relatively large KBO that has a nearly circular, though off-axis, orbit. Simply put, astronomers are baffled by this orbit because it defies both planetary catpture and solar system formation models:

www.newscientistspace.com...

[edit on 13-12-2005 by onlyinmydreams]

Seems only now are we starting to get more and more information on what lies outside the Solar System.... no more empty space till the nearest star.
Hopefully the New Horizons mission will throw up a lot more data in the years to come also.

OR maybe its been made to do that, so we notice it. LOL just wishful thinking that someone put a data storage device on it for us to find! *crosses fingers* Meh....

I've often wonder why, in three-dimensional space, we end up with so many people thinking of the solar system in terms of two dimensions.

I'm not surprised that we've discovered objects that are not orbiting the sun in a conveniently narrow range of inclinations. The circularity of the orbit, however, does make "Buffy" appear to have entered orbit in a stable, gradual manner.

Of course, having such an inclined orbit, perhaps it's not all that surprising. After all, it would not have been subjected to much in the way of gravitational disturbance, thereby allowing it to settle into a circular orbit.