Japanese astronomers have found evidence of a possible thin atmosphere around a small, remote object known as (612533) 2002 XV93, a roughly 500-kilometre-wide icy body in the Kuiper Belt (a distant region of the outer Solar System beyond Neptune) located some six billion kilometres from Earth. Published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the study found that when the object passed in front of a star in January 2024, the starlight did not immediately reappear — suggesting a faint atmosphere, estimated to be five to ten million times thinner than Earth's, was filtering the light. If confirmed, it would make this only the second trans-Neptunian object known to have an atmosphere after Pluto, challenging the long-held assumption that small, cold bodies in the outer Solar System are geologically inert, though some researchers caution that a ring around the object could offer an alternative explanation.