Cubewanos
A classical Kuiper belt object, also called a cubewano ( "QB1-o"), is a low-eccentricity Kuiper belt object (KBO) that orbits beyond Neptune and is not controlled by an orbital resonance with Neptune. Cubewanos have orbits with semi-major axes in the 40–50 AU range and, unlike Pluto, do not cross Neptune's orbit. That is, they have low-eccentricity and sometimes low-inclination orbits like the classical planets. The name "cubewano" derives from the first trans-Neptunian object (TNO) found after Pluto and Charon: 15760 Albion, which until January 2018 had only the provisional designation (15760) 1992 QB1. Similar objects found later were often called "QB1-o's", or "cubewanos", after this object, though the term "classical" is much more frequently used in the scientific literature. Objects identified as cubewanos include: * 15760 Albion (aka 1992 QB1 and gave rise to term 'Cubewano') * 136472 Makemake, the largest known cubewano and a dwarf planet * 50000 Quaoar and 2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cubewanos
A classical Kuiper belt object, also called a cubewano ( "QB1-o"), is a low-eccentricity Kuiper belt object (KBO) that orbits beyond Neptune and is not controlled by an orbital resonance with Neptune. Cubewanos have orbits with semi-major axes in the 40–50 AU range and, unlike Pluto, do not cross Neptune's orbit. That is, they have low-eccentricity and sometimes low-inclination orbits like the classical planets. The name "cubewano" derives from the first trans-Neptunian object (TNO) found after Pluto and Charon: 15760 Albion, which until January 2018 had only the provisional designation (15760) 1992 QB1. Similar objects found later were often called "QB1-o's", or "cubewanos", after this object, though the term "classical" is much more frequently used in the scientific literature. Objects identified as cubewanos include: * 15760 Albion (aka 1992 QB1 and gave rise to term 'Cubewano') * 136472 Makemake, the largest known cubewano and a dwarf planet * 50000 Quaoar and 2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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20000 Varuna
20000 Varuna, provisional designation , is a large trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper belt. It was discovered in November 2000 by American astronomer Robert McMillan during a Spacewatch survey at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. It is named after the Hindu deity Varuna, one of the oldest deities mentioned in the Vedic texts. Varuna's light curve is compatible with the body being a Jacobi ellipsoid, suggesting that it has an elongated shape due to its rapid rotation. Varuna's surface is moderately red in color due to the presence of complex organic compounds on its surface. Water ice is also present on its surface, and is thought to have been exposed by past collisions which may have also caused Varuna's rapid rotation. Although no natural satellites have been found or directly imaged around Varuna, analysis of variations in its light curve in 2019 suggests the presence of a possible satellite orbiting closely around Varuna. History Discovery Varuna was discovered ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trans-Neptunian Object
A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has a semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (au). Typically, TNOs are further divided into the classical and resonant objects of the Kuiper belt, the scattered disc and detached objects with the sednoids being the most distant ones. As of October 2020, the catalog of minor planets contains 678 numbered and more than 2,000 unnumbered TNOs. The first trans-Neptunian object to be discovered was Pluto in 1930. It took until 1992 to discover a second trans-Neptunian object orbiting the Sun directly, 15760 Albion. The most massive TNO known is Eris, followed by Pluto, , , and . More than 80 satellites have been discovered in orbit of trans-Neptunian objects. TNOs vary in color and are either grey-blue (BB) or very red (RR). They are thought to be composed of mixtures of rock, amorphous carbon and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kuiper Belt
The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies or remnants from when the Solar System formed. While many asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles (termed "ices"), such as methane, ammonia, and water. The Kuiper belt is home to most of the objects that astronomers generally accept as dwarf planets: Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, and Makemake. Some of the Solar System's moons, such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, may have originated in the region. The Kuiper belt was named after Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper, although he did not predict its existence. In 1992, minor planet (15760) Albion was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times the mass of Earth, and slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus. Neptune is denser and physically smaller than Uranus because its greater mass causes more gravitational compression of its atmosphere. It is referred to as one of the solar system's two ice giant planets (the other one being Uranus). Being composed primarily of gases and liquids, it has no well-defined "solid surface". The planet orbits the Sun once every 164.8 julian year (astronomy), years at an average distance of . It is named after the Neptune (mythology), Roman god of the sea and has the astronomical symbol , representing Neptune's trident. Neptune is not visible to the unaided eye and is the only planet in the Solar System found by mathematical prediction ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Plutino
In astronomy, the plutinos are a dynamical group of trans-Neptunian objects that orbit in 2:3 mean-motion resonance with Neptune. This means that for every two orbits a plutino makes, Neptune orbits three times. The dwarf planet Pluto is the largest member as well as the namesake of this group. The next largest members are , , and . Plutinos are named after mythological creatures associated with the underworld. Plutinos form the inner part of the Kuiper belt and represent about a quarter of the known Kuiper belt objects. They are also the most populous known class of resonant trans-Neptunian objects ''(also see adjunct box with hierarchical listing)''. The first plutino after Pluto itself, (385185) 1993 RO, was discovered on September 16, 1993. Orbits Origin It is thought that the objects that are currently in mean orbital resonances with Neptune initially followed a variety of independent heliocentric paths. As Neptune migrated outward early in the Solar System's history ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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15760 Albion
15760 Albion, provisional designation , was the first trans-Neptunian object to be discovered after Pluto and Charon. Measuring about 108–167 kilometres in diameter, it was discovered in 1992 by David C. Jewitt and Jane X. Luu at the Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. After the discovery, they dubbed the object "Smiley" and it was shortly hailed as the tenth planet by the press. It is a "cold" classical Kuiper belt object and gave rise to the name ''cubewano'' for this kind of object, after the portion of its designation. Decoding its provisional designation, "QB1" reveals that it was the 27th object found in the second half of August of that year. As of January 2018, around 2,400 further objects have been found beyond Neptune, a majority of which are classical Kuiper belt objects. It was named after Albion from William Blake's mythology. Naming This minor planet was named after Albion from the complex mythology of English poet and painter William Blake (1757–1827). Albion ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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66652 Borasisi
66652 Borasisi, or as a binary (66652) Borasisi-Pabu, is a binary classical Kuiper belt object. It was discovered in September 1999 by Chad Trujillo, Jane X. Luu and David C. Jewitt and identified as a binary in 2003 by K. Noll and colleagues using the Hubble Space Telescope. Satellite In 2003 it was discovered that 66652 Borasisi is a binary with the components of comparable size (about 100–130 km) orbiting the barycentre on a moderately elliptical orbit. The total system mass is about 3.4 kg. The companion (66652) Borasisi I, named Pabu, orbits its primary in on an orbit with semi-major axis of and eccentricity . The orbit is inclined with respect to the observer by about 54° meaning that is about 35° from the pole-on position. Physical properties The surface of both components of the Borasisi–Pabu system is very red. Naming Borasisi is named after a fictional creation deity taken from the novel ''Cat's Cradle'' by Kurt Vonnegut. In the book, Boras ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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88611 Teharonhiawako
88611 Teharonhiawako, or (88611) Teharonhiawako–Sawiskera as a binary, is a trans-Neptunian object and a member of the cold classical Kuiper belt, measuring about 220 km in diameter. It is a binary object, with a large companion named Sawiskera (formally designated (88611) Teharonhiawako I Sawiskera), which at 126 km in diameter is about two-thirds the size of its primary. Teharonhiawako was discovered on August 20, 2001, by the Deep Ecliptic Survey, and Sawiskera was identified a month later. The primary is named after Teharonhia꞉wako, a god of maize in the Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ... creation myth, while the secondary is named after his evil twin brother Sawiskera. The objects were named in 2007. Sawiskera's orbit has the foll ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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486958 Arrokoth
Arrokoth (minor-planet designation 486958 Arrokoth; provisional designation ), formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule, is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System visited by a spacecraft when the NASA space probe ''New Horizons'' conducted a flyby on 1 January 2019. Arrokoth is a contact binary long, composed of two planetesimals and across, that are joined along their major axes. With an orbital period of about 298 years and a low orbital inclination and eccentricity, Arrokoth is classified as a cold classical Kuiper belt object. Arrokoth was discovered on 26 June 2014 by astronomer Marc Buie and the New Horizons Search Team using the Hubble Space Telescope as part of a search for a Kuiper belt object for the ''New Horizons'' mission to target in its first extended mission; it was chosen over two other candidates to become the primary target of the mission. Name When Arrokoth ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Haumea
Haumea (minor-planet designation 136108 Haumea) is a dwarf planet located trans-Neptunian object, beyond Neptune's orbit. It was discovered in 2004 by a team headed by Michael E. Brown, Mike Brown of Caltech at the Palomar Observatory in the United States and disputably also in 2005 by a team headed by José Luis Ortiz Moreno at the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain, though the latter claim has been contested. On September 17, 2008, it was named after Haumea (mythology), Haumea, the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth, under the expectation by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that it would prove to be a dwarf planet. Nominal estimates make it the List of Solar System objects by size, third-largest known trans-Neptunian object, after Eris (dwarf planet), Eris and Pluto, though the uncertainty in best-fit modeling slightly overlaps with the larger size estimates for Makemake (dwarf planet), Makemake. (ESO 21 November 2012 press releaseDwarf Planet Makemake Lacks Atmosphere Haume ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |