(181708) 1993 FW ( provisional designation ) is a

cubewano 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 axe ...

and was the second trans-Neptunian object to be discovered after

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

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 Maun ...

, formerly known as . It was discovered in 1993 by David C. Jewitt and Jane X. Luu at the Mauna Kea Observatory,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. Following its discovery it was nicknamed "Karla" after a character by John le Carré 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 a time when the new region "came to life", triggering a retrospective of various predictions about second asteroid or comet belts in the outer solar system. Three more KBOs found in 1993 are

(15788) 1993 SB (15788) 1993 SB is a trans-Neptunian object of the plutino class. Apart from Pluto, it was one of the first such objects discovered (beaten by two days by (385185) 1993 RO and by one day by 1993 RP), and the first to have an orbit calculated well ...

, (15789) 1993 SC, 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