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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 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, 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.
Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's quest for Planet X. Lowell proposed the Planet X hypothesis to explain apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the giant planets, particularly Uranus and Neptune, speculating that the gravity of a large unseen ninth planet could have perturbed Uranus enough to account for the irregularities.
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 Orcus, (208996) 2003 AZ84, and Ixion. Plutinos are named after mythological creatures associated with the underworld.
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 an orbital semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (au).
15760 Albion (provisional designation 1992 QB1) 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 QB1 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.
David Clifford Jewitt 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 Planetary Physics, the Director of the Institute for Planets and Exoplanets, Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. He is best known for being the first person to discover a body beyond Pluto and Charon in the Kuiper belt.
The scattered disc (or scattered disk) is a distant circumstellar disc in the Solar System that is sparsely populated by icy small Solar System bodies, which are a subset of the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects. The scattered-disc objects (SDOs) have orbital eccentricities ranging as high as 0.8, inclinations as high as 40°, and perihelia greater than 30 astronomical units (4.5×109 km; 2.8×109 mi). These extreme orbits are thought to be the result of gravitational "scattering" by the gas giants, and the objects continue to be subject to perturbation by the planet Neptune.
(15788) 1993 SB is a trans-Neptunian object of the plutino class. Apart from Pluto, it was one of the first such objects discovered, and the first to have an orbit calculated well enough to receive a number. The discovery was made in 1993 at the La Palma Observatory with the Isaac Newton Telescope. Very little is known about the object. Even the diameter estimate of ~130 km is based on an assumed albedo of 0.09.
(385185) 1993 RO is a plutino. It was the first plutino discovered after Pluto itself, with 1993 RP and (15788) 1993 SB a day and two days later, respectively. The discovery was made in 1993 at the Mauna Kea Observatory with a 2.2-meter telescope. Very little is known about (385185) 1993 RO. Even the diameter estimate of ~90 km is based on the assumed albedo of 0.09.
(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.
(15807) 1994 GV9 (provisional designation 1994 GV9) is a trans-Neptunian object from the classical Kuiper belt located in the outermost region of the Solar System. The cubewano belongs to the orbitally unexcited cold population. It was discovered on 15 April 1994, by astronomers David Jewitt and Jun Chen at the Mauna Kea Observatories, near Hilo, Hawaii.
(19255) 1994 VK8 is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) of the "cold" cubewano class orbiting the Sun in the Kuiper belt of the outer Solar System. It was discovered on November 8, 1994, by Alan Fitzsimmons, Donal O'Ceallaigh, and Iwan P. Williams at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, Spain.
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term minor planet, but that year's meeting reclassified minor planets and comets into dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies (SSSBs).
(386723) 2009 YE7 (provisional designation 2009 YE7) is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) discovered by David Rabinowitz on December 17, 2009, at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.
(533560) 2014 JM80, provisional designation 2014 JM80, is a trans-Neptunian object from the scattered disc in the outermost Solar System, approximately 340 kilometers (210 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 9 May 2010 by astronomers with the Pan-STARRS-1 survey at the Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, in the United States. According to American astronomer Michael Brown, it is "possibly" a dwarf planet.
2014 FZ71 is a trans-Neptunian object, a scattered disc classified as a scattered and detached object, located in the outermost region of the Solar System. It was first observed on 24 March 2014, by a team led by American astronomer Scott Sheppard at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. With its perihelion of almost 56 AU, it belongs to a small and poorly understood group of very distant objects with moderate eccentricities. The object is not a dwarf planet candidate as it only measures approximately 150 kilometers (93 miles) in diameter.
2015 FJ345 is a trans-Neptunian object and detached object, located in the scattered disc, the outermost region of the Solar System. It was first observed on 17 March 2015, by a team led by American astronomer Scott Sheppard at the Mauna Kea Observatories, in Hawaii, United States. With its perihelion of almost 51 AU, it belongs to a small and poorly understood group of very distant objects with moderate eccentricities. The object is not a dwarf planet candidate as it only measures approximately 120 kilometers (75 miles) in diameter.
2013 FQ28 is a trans-Neptunian object, both considered a scattered and detached object, located in the outermost region of the Solar System. It was first observed on 17 March 2013, by a team of astronomers at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. It orbits the Sun in a moderate inclined, moderate-eccentricity orbit. The weak dwarf planet candidate measures approximately 260 kilometers (160 miles) in diameter.
References
- ↑ Marc W. Buie. "Orbit Fit and Astrometric record for 181708". SwRI (Space Science Department). Retrieved 2018-02-18.
- 1 2 "JPL Small-Body Database Browser". Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Retrieved 7 April 2016.
- ↑ "List of Known Trans-Neptunian Objects". Wm. Robert Johnston. Archived from the original on 2015-01-09. Retrieved 2015-01-03.
- 1 2 "How many dwarf planets are there in the outer solar system?". Mike Brown. Retrieved 2015-01-03.
- ↑ B.S. Marsden; Jewitt, D.; Marsden, B. G. (1993). "1993 FW". IAU Circ. Minor Planet Center. 5730: 1. Bibcode:1993IAUC.5730....1L.
- ↑ "Space body given name of Le Carre character: Astronomers discover planetesimal Karla" . The Independent . April 20, 1993. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01.
- ↑ Coote, Roger (August 2008). The earth . London: Alligator Books. ISBN 9781842399491. OCLC 671197414.
- 1 2 Eicher, David J. (2013-09-23). COMETS!: Visitors from Deep Space. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-51350-1.
- ↑ "The Kuiper Belt at 20". Astrobiology Magazine. 2012-09-01. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
- 1 2 Dyches, Preston. "10 Things to Know About the Kuiper Belt". NASA Solar System Exploration. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
- ↑ "MPEC 2010-B62 :Distant Minor Planets (2010 FEB. 13.0 TT)". Minor Planet Center. 2010-01-30. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
