2011 KW48
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovery date | May 2011 |
| Designations | |
| VNH0004 | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
|
Epoch (JD) 2455710.5 (2011-05-29) | |
| Aphelion | 49 ±35 AU |
| Perihelion | 26 ±32 AU |
| 37 ±14 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.299 ±0.805 |
| 229 ±131 years | |
| 310 ±31 | |
| Inclination | 3.81 ±0.396 |
| 112 ± 54 | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 100 ± 50 km |
| ~23.5 | |
| 8.8 | |
|
| |
2011 KW48 (also labeled VNH0004) is a Kuiper belt object. In January 2015, the New Horizons probe traveled about 75 million km (47 million miles) (0.5 AU) from it,[2] which is too far to take high-resolution photos of the object itself, but allowed the detection of possible satellites. If 2011 KW48 were 100 kilometers wide, it would appear approximately 0.11 arcseconds wide to New Horizons.
2011 KW48 was only observed 12 times by the Mauna Kea (8) and Las Campanas Observatory (4) over a period of about 33.8 days between May 29 and July 2, 2011, so its current orbit is extremely uncertain. Between January 4 and 15 in 2015 New Horizons actively observed the object.[3]
References
- ↑ "Orbit Fit and Astrometric record for VNH0004". Southwest Research Institute. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
- ↑ "New Horizons to Encounter KBO Ahead of Pluto Flyby". AmericaSpace.
- ↑ Gebhardt, Chris (January 19, 2015). "New Horizons begins Pluto observations ahead of July flyby". Nasaspaceflight.com. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
External links
- 2011 KW48 at the JPL Small-Body Database
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, January 16, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.