Back in April, much excitement was created within the astronomy community after scientists have found 45 previously unknown bodies of rock orbiting beyond Neptune, each of which ranged from 50 to 500 kilometers wide.

This excitement has been rekindled this month as dozens of small icy objects which are similar to last April's samples have been found in the far areas of our solar system. Based on this new discovery, scientists are led to believe that these objects are far more abundant than they have previously thought.

The real importance of these discoveries, however, is that it aids in the measuring of the distribution of objects in space, which will then test various theories of how our outer solar system evolved. And now, because of their latest findings, scientists now speculate that there are a quadrillion (one million billion) of these objects in the areas beyond Neptune.

These objects are known as the smallest of their kind which are referred to as TNOs, or trans-Neptunian objects. Most TNOs are hundreds of kilometers across and are believed to be similar to comets in the sense that they are also composed of mostly dust, rock and ice.