(181708) 1993 FW was the second

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 ...

to be discovered after

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...

and Charon, the first having been

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 Ke ...

, formerly known as . It was discovered in 1993 by

David C. Jewitt David Clifford Jewitt (born 1958) is a British-American astronomer who studies the Solar System, especially its minor bodies. He is based at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is a Member of the Institute for Geophysics and Pl ...

and

Jane X. Luu Jane X. Luu ( vi, ; born July 1963) is a Vietnamese-American astronomer and defense systems engineer. She was awarded the Kavli Prize (shared with David C. Jewitt and Michael Brown) for 2012 "for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt ...

at the

Mauna Kea Observatory The Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO) are a group of independent astronomical research facilities and large telescope observatories that are located at the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, United States. The facilities are locate ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

. Following its discovery it was nicknamed "Karla" after a character by

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

by its discoverers and was hailed as that of a new planet. Mike Brown lists it as possibly a dwarf planet on his website. 181708 was discovered half a year after Albion. Over one thousand bodies were found in a belt orbiting between about 30-50 AU from the Sun in the twenty years (1992-2012), after finding 1992 QB1 (named in 2018, 15760 Albion), showing a vast belt of bodies more than just Pluto and Albion. By 2018, over 2000 Kuiper belts objects were discovered. The mid-1990s were time when the new region "came to life", triggering a retrospective at various predictions about various second asteroid or comet belts in the other system. Three more KBOs found in 1993 are (15788) 1993 SB,

(15789) 1993 SC (15789) 1993 SC is a trans-Neptunian object of the plutino class. The discovery was made in 1993 at the La Palma Observatory with the Isaac Newton Telescope. It was the second plutino to receive an MPC number. KBO's found in 1993 include: (15788) ...

, and (385185) 1993 RO.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1993 FW 181708 Discoveries by David C. Jewitt Discoveries by Jane Luu 19930328

See also

References

External links