5145 Pholus

5145 Pholus

Orbital diagram (top view)
Discovery
Discovered by Spacewatch
(David L. Rabinowitz)
Discovery date January 9, 1992
Designations
Named after
 Pholus
1992 AD
Centaur,
Saturn crosser,
Uranus crosser,
Neptune crosser
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch November 30, 2008 (JD 2454800.5)
Aphelion 31.98 AU (Q)
4784 Gm
Perihelion 8.730 AU (q)
1305 Gm
20.356 AU (a)
3045.2 Gm
Eccentricity 0.5711
91.85 yr
33547.41 d
6.01 km/s
67.49°
Inclination 24.65°
119.44°
354.92°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions 185±16 km
9.98 hours[1]
Albedo 0.046±0.02
Temperature ~62 K
Spectral type
 (red) B−V=1.19;
V−R=0.78[2]
~20.7[3]
7.0[1]

    5145 Pholus (/ˈfoʊləs/; from Greek: Φόλος) is a centaur in an eccentric orbit, with a perihelion less than Saturn's and aphelion greater than Neptune's. Pholus has not come within one astronomical unit of a planet since 764 BC, and will not until 5290.[4] It is believed that Pholus originated in the Kuiper belt.

    It was discovered by David L. Rabinowitz, then of the University of Arizona's Spacewatch Project, and named after Pholus, the brother of the mythological Chiron, after which 2060 Chiron was named, in order to follow the tradition of naming this class of outer planet-crossing objects after centaurs.

    Pholus was the second centaur to be discovered and was quickly found to be quite red in color, for which it has been occasionally nicknamed "Big Red". The color has been speculated to be due to organic compounds on its surface.[5]

    The surface composition of Pholus has been estimated from its reflectance spectrum using two spatially segregated components:[6] dark amorphous carbon and an intimate mixture of water ice, methanol ice, olivine grains, and complex organic compounds (tholins). The carbon black component was used to match the low albedo of the object.

    Unlike 2060 Chiron, Pholus has shown no signs of cometary activity.

    The diameter of Pholus is estimated to be 185±16 km.[7]

    References

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 5145 Pholus (1992 AD)" (2008-05-27 last obs). Retrieved 2008-09-01.
    2. ↑ Tegler, Stephen C. (2006-01-26). "Kuiper Belt Object Magnitudes and Surface Colors". Retrieved 2006-11-05.
    3. ↑ "AstDys (5145) Pholus Ephemerides". Department of Mathematics, University of Pisa, Italy. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
    4. ↑ "Fifty clones of Centaur 5145 Pholus all passing within ~100Gm of Neptune on 5290-07-07". Retrieved 2009-04-23. (Solex 10)
    5. ↑ Wilson PD, Sagan C, Thompson WR (1994). "The organic surface of 5145 Pholus: constraints set by scattering theory". Icarus 107 (2): 288–303. Bibcode:1994Icar..107..288W. doi:10.1006/icar.1994.1024. PMID 11539180.
    6. ↑ Cruikshank DP, and 14 colleagues (1998). "The Composition of Centaur 5145 Pholus". Icarus 135 (2): 389–407. Bibcode:1998Icar..135..389C. doi:10.1006/icar.1998.5997.
    7. ↑ "Infrared Observations of Distant Asteroids". Adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-30.

    External links