(636872) 2014 YX49

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(636872) 2014 YX49
Animation of 2014 YX49 relative to Sun and Uranus 1600-2500.gif
Animation of 2014 YX49 relative to Sun and Uranus 1600-2500
  2014 YX49 ·  Uranus ·  Sun
Discovery [1]
Discovered by Pan-STARRS
Discovery site Haleakala Obs.
Discovery dateDecember 26, 2014
Designations
2014 YX49
Uranus trojan centaur [2] [3]  · distant [1]
Orbital characteristics [2]
Epoch 16 February 2017 (JD 2457800.5)
Uncertainty parameter 1
Observation arc 4876 days (13.35 yr)
Aphelion 24.4207  AU (3.65328  Tm)
Perihelion 13.8401 AU (2.07045 Tm)
19.1304 AU (2.86187 Tm)
Eccentricity 0.276539
83.67 yr (30562 d)
75.587°
Inclination 25.55097°
91.44425°
280.584°
Earth  MOID 12.9424 AU (1.93616 Tm)
Jupiter  MOID 9.47006 AU (1.416701 Tm)
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter
77  km (est. at 0.09) [3]
21.6
8.8

    (636872) 2014 YX49 (provisional designation 2014 YX49) is a centaur and Uranus co-orbital, approximately 77 kilometers (48 miles) in diameter, first observed on December 26, 2014, by the Pan-STARRS survey. [4] It is the second known centaur on a tadpole orbit with Uranus, and the fourth Uranus co-orbital discovered after 83982 Crantor, 2011 QF99 and (472651) 2015 DB216 . [5]

    Contents

    Description

    Centaur 2014 YX49 is a temporary L4 trojan of Uranus, the second one (2011 QF99 was identified first) to be confirmed as currently trapped in such a resonant state. This object may have remained as a L4 Uranian Trojan for about 60,000 years and it can continue that way for another 80,000 years. Numerical integrations suggest that it may stay within Uranus' co-orbital zone for nearly one million years. [5]

    Besides being a L4 Uranian trojan, 2014 YX49 is trapped in the 7:20 mean motion resonance with Saturn as well; therefore, this minor body is currently subjected to a three-body resonance. [5] The other known Uranian trojan, 2011 QF99, is also in this resonant configuration.

    See also

    Related Research Articles

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    The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each trojan librates around one of Jupiter's stable Lagrange points: either L4, existing 60° ahead of the planet in its orbit, or L5, 60° behind. Jupiter trojans are distributed in two elongated, curved regions around these Lagrangian points with an average semi-major axis of about 5.2 AU.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Centaur (small Solar System body)</span> Type of Solar System object

    In planetary astronomy, a centaur is a small Solar System body that orbits the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune and crosses the orbits of one or more of the giant planets. Centaurs generally have unstable orbits because they cross or have crossed the orbits of the giant planets; almost all their orbits have dynamic lifetimes of only a few million years, but there is one known centaur, 514107 Kaʻepaokaʻawela, which may be in a stable orbit. Centaurs typically exhibit the characteristics of both asteroids and comets. They are named after the mythological centaurs that were a mixture of horse and human. Observational bias toward large objects makes determination of the total centaur population difficult. Estimates for the number of centaurs in the Solar System more than 1 km in diameter range from as low as 44,000 to more than 10,000,000.

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    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Neptune trojan</span> Asteroid orbiting the Sun near one of the stable Lagrangian points of Neptune

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    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Pan-STARRS</span> Multi-telescope astronomical survey

    The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US, consists of astronomical cameras, telescopes and a computing facility that is surveying the sky for moving or variable objects on a continual basis, and also producing accurate astrometry and photometry of already-detected objects. In January 2019 the second Pan-STARRS data release was announced. At 1.6 petabytes, it is the largest volume of astronomical data ever released.

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    In astronomy, a trojan is a small celestial body (mostly asteroids) that shares the orbit of a larger body, remaining in a stable orbit approximately 60° ahead of or behind the main body near one of its Lagrangian points L4 and L5. Trojans can share the orbits of planets or of large moons.

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    (148975) 2001 XA255, provisional designation: 2001 XA255, is a dark minor planet in the outer Solar System, classified as centaur, approximately 38 kilometers (24 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 9 December 2001, by David C. Jewitt, Scott S. Sheppard, and Jan Kleyna observing from the Mauna Kea Observatory. The object is currently trapped in a 1:1 mean-motion resonance with Neptune following a path of the horseshoe type.

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    2010 EU65 is a centaur, approximately 64 kilometers (40 miles) in diameter, orbiting the Sun in the outer Solar System. The object is also a promising Uranus horseshoe librator candidate. It was first observed on 13 March 2010, by American astronomers David Rabinowitz and Suzanne Tourtellotte, observing from Cerro Tololo and La Silla Observatory in Chile. As of 2021, it has neither been numbered nor named.

    <span class="nowrap">2011 SC<sub>191</sub></span>

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    <span class="nowrap">(687170) 2011 QF<sub>99</sub></span>

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    2012 FC71, also written 2012 FC71, is a small asteroid trapped in a Kozai resonance with the Earth.

    2013 ND15 (also written 2013 ND15) is an asteroid that is a temporary trojan of Venus, the first known Venus trojan.

    (472651) 2015 DB216 is a centaur and Uranus co-orbital discovered on February 27, 2015, by the Mount Lemmon Survey. It is the second known centaur on a horseshoe orbit with Uranus, and the third Uranus co-orbital discovered after 2011 QF99 (a Trojan) and 83982 Crantor (a horseshoe librator). A second Uranian Trojan, 2014 YX49, was announced in 2017.

    <span class="nowrap">P/2019 LD<sub>2</sub></span> (ATLAS) Jupiter family comet

    P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS) is a Jupiter-family comet discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System on 10 June 2019. It was initially reported as the first known Jupiter trojan asteroid to display cometary activity, but its classification as a Jupiter trojan was retracted after closer examination and a longer observation arc revealed its orbit to be unstable like a typical Jupiter family comet and implied that its position near the trojans is temporary.

    A Uranus trojan is an asteroid that shares an orbit with Uranus and the Sun. Predicted in simulations earlier, two trojans have been discovered in Uranus’s Lagrangian point L4 (leading Uranus).

    References

    1. 1 2 "2014 YX49 - Minor Planet Center". Minor Planet Center. International Astronomical Union. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
    2. 1 2 "JPL Small Body Database Browser". JPL (2015-01-28 last obs.). NASA . Retrieved January 20, 2017.
    3. 1 2 Johnston, Wm. Robert (August 18, 2020). "List of Known Trans-Neptunian Objects". Johnston's Archive. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
    4. "MPEC 2016-O10 : 2014 YX49". Minor Planet Center. International Astronomical Union . Retrieved January 20, 2017.
    5. 1 2 3 de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl (May 15, 2017). "Asteroid 2014 YX49: a large transient Trojan of Uranus". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 467 (2): 1561–1568. arXiv: 1701.05541 . Bibcode:2017MNRAS.467.1561D. doi:10.1093/mnras/stx197.