DiscoveryMPS 1836391 | |
---|---|
Discovered by | New Horizons KBO Search-Subaru |
Discovery site | Subaru |
Discovery date | 22 June 2020 |
Designations | |
2020 MK53 | |
TNO [1] · SDO · distant [2] | |
Orbital characteristics [2] | |
Epoch 24 June 2020 (JD 2459024.5) | |
Uncertainty parameter 9 | |
Observation arc | 3 days [3] |
Aphelion | 160 AU |
Perihelion | 63 AU |
111 AU | |
Eccentricity | 0.44 |
1174 yr | |
182° | |
0° 0m 2.88s / day | |
Inclination | 18° |
116° | |
351° | |
Physical characteristics | |
600–500 km (est. 0.1–0.2) [4] | |
25.6 | |
4.12 [2] | |
2020 MK53 is a trans-Neptunian object in the scattered disc, around 550 kilometres (340 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 22 June 2020 by the New Horizons KBO Search-Subaru survey [5] [6] using the 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope of the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii, and announced on 7 April 2023 (MPS 1836391, MPO 735634). It was 160 astronomical units from the Sun when it was discovered, making it the farthest known Solar System object from the Sun as of September 2023 [update] , well ahead of 2018 VG18 (124 AU) and 2018 AG37 (~132 AU). [2] [7] Given its very short data-arc the only reliable information is in its range (156±4 AU) and range-rate (−0.04 km/s), which suggests that it is close to its aphelion. [8]
474640 Alicanto (provisional designation 2004 VN112) is a detached extreme trans-Neptunian object. It was discovered on 6 November 2004, by American astronomer Andrew C. Becker at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. It never gets closer than 47 AU from the Sun (near the outer edge of the main Kuiper belt) and averages more than 300 AU from the Sun. Its large eccentricity strongly suggests that it was gravitationally scattered onto its current orbit. Because it is, like all detached objects, outside the current gravitational influence of Neptune, how it came to have this orbit cannot yet be explained. It was named after Alicanto, a nocturnal bird in Chilean mythology.
(445473) 2010 VZ98 (provisional designation 2010 VZ98) is a trans-Neptunian object of the scattered disc, orbiting the Sun in the outermost region of the Solar System. It has a diameter of approximately 400 kilometers.
2012 VP113 is a trans-Neptunian object of the sednoid population, located in the outermost reaches of the Solar System. It was first observed on 5 November 2012 by American astronomers Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The discovery was announced on 26 March 2014. The object probably measures somewhere between 300 and 1000 km in diameter, possibly large enough to be a dwarf planet.
2013 RF98 is a trans-Neptunian object. It was discovered on September 12, 2013, at Cerro Tololo-DECam.
(674118) 2015 KH162 is a large trans-Neptunian object orbiting in the scattered disc region of the outermost Solar System. First observed in 2015, this minor planet is one of the most distant objects from the Sun at 60.6 AU, or twice as far as Neptune.
(523794) 2015 RR245, provisional designation 2015 RR245, is a large trans-Neptunian object of the Kuiper belt in the outermost regions of the Solar System. It was discovered on 9 September 2015, by the Outer Solar System Origins Survey at Mauna Kea Observatories on the Big island of Hawaii, in the United States. The object is in a rare 2:9 resonance with Neptune and measures approximately 600 kilometers in diameter. 2015 RR245 was suspected to have a satellite according to a study announced by Noyelles et al. in a European Planetary Science Congress meeting in 2019.
2015 KG163, also known as o5m52, is a trans-Neptunian object from the outermost region of the Solar System, approximately 102 kilometers (63 miles) in diameter. It was first observed on 24 May 2015, by astronomers of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey using the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatories, Hawaii, United States. With an observation arc of 2 years, it passed perihelion around August 2022 at a velocity of 6.5 km/s with respect to the Sun.
C/2017 U7 (PanSTARRS) is a hyperbolic comet, first observed on 29 October 2017 by astronomers of the Pan-STARRS facility at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, United States when the object was 7.8 AU (1.2 billion km) from the Sun. Despite being discovered only 10 days after interstellar asteroid 1I/'Oumuamua, it was not announced until March 2018 as its orbit is not strongly hyperbolic beyond most Oort Cloud comets. Based on the absolute magnitude of 10.6, it may measure tens of kilometers in diameter. As of August 2018, there is only 1 hyperbolic asteroid known, ʻOumuamua, but hundreds of hyperbolic comets are known.
2015 TH367 is a trans-Neptunian object approximately 220 kilometers in diameter. As of 2021 it is approximately 90 AU (13 billion km) from the Sun. At the time of its announcement in March 2018, it was the third most distant observed natural object in the Solar System, after Eris and 2014 UZ224.
C/2018 F4 (PanSTARRS) is a hyperbolic comet. It was discovered on 17 March 2018 when it was beyond the orbit of Jupiter, 6.4 AU (960 million km) from the Sun. It was quite far from the Sun and turned out to simply be an asteroidal object that was discovered before cometary activity was noticeable. As perihelion is inside the orbit of Jupiter, this object should become more active. In April 2018 it was determined to be a hyperbolic comet. Given that the incoming velocity was similar to that of an Oort cloud object, we can very confidently say that it is not of interstellar origin. C/2018 F4 fragmented around August 2020.
2015 BP519, nicknamed Caju, is an extreme trans-Neptunian object from the scattered disc on a highly eccentric and inclined orbit in the outermost region of the Solar System. It was first observed on 17 January 2015, by astronomers with the Dark Energy Survey at Cerro Tololo Observatory (W84) in Chile. It has been described as an extended scattered disc object (ESDO), and fits into the group of extreme objects that led to the prediction of Planet Nine, and has the highest orbital inclination of any of these objects.
(505448) 2013 SA100, provisional designation 2013 SA100 and also known as o3l79, is a trans-Neptunian object from the classical Kuiper belt in the outermost region of the Solar System. It was discovered on 5 August 2013, by astronomer with the Outer Solar System Origins Survey at the Mauna Kea Observatories, Hawaii, in the United States. The classical Kuiper belt object belongs to the hot population and is a weak dwarf planet candidate, approximately 260 kilometers (160 miles) in diameter.
2018 VG18 is a distant trans-Neptunian object (TNO) that was discovered when it was 123 AU (18 billion km; 11 billion mi) from the Sun, more than three times the average distance between the Sun and Pluto. It was discovered on 10 November 2018 by Scott Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chad Trujillo during their search for TNOs whose orbits might be gravitationally influenced by the hypothetical Planet Nine. They announced the discovery of 2018 VG18 on 17 December 2018 and nicknamed the object "Farout" to emphasize its distance from the Sun.
2018 AG37 is a distant trans-Neptunian object and centaur that was discovered 132.2 ± 1.5 AU (19.78 ± 0.22 billion km) from the Sun, farther than any other currently observable known object in the Solar System. Imaged in January 2018 during a search for the hypothetical Planet Nine, the confirmation of this object was announced in a press release in February 2021 by astronomers Scott Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chad Trujillo. The object was nicknamed "FarFarOut" to emphasize its distance from the Sun.
2020 CD3 (also CD3 for short) is a tiny near-Earth asteroid (or minimoon) that ordinarily orbits the Sun but makes close approaches to the Earth–Moon system, in which it can temporarily enter Earth orbit through temporary satellite capture (TSC). It was discovered at the Mount Lemmon Observatory by astronomers Theodore Pruyne and Kacper Wierzchoś on 15 February 2020, as part of the Mount Lemmon Survey or Catalina Sky Survey. The asteroid's discovery was announced by the Minor Planet Center on 25 February 2020, after subsequent observations confirmed that it was orbiting Earth.
C/2021 O3 (PanSTARRS) is perhaps an Oort cloud comet, discovered on 26 July 2021 by the Pan-STARRS sky survey. It came to perihelion on 21 April 2022 at 0.287 AU (42.9 million km). from the Sun.
2021 PH27 is a near-Earth asteroid of the Atira group. It was discovered by Scott Sheppard using the Dark Energy Survey's DECam imager at NOIRLab's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory on 13 August 2021. 2021 PH27 has the smallest semi-major axis and shortest orbital period among all known asteroids as of 2021, with a velocity at perihelion of 106 km/s (240,000 mph). It also has the largest relativistic perihelion shift of any object orbiting the Sun, 1.6 times that of Mercury. With an absolute magnitude of 17.7, the asteroid is estimated to be larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter.
2021 DR15 is a large trans-Neptunian object in the scattered disc, around 700 kilometres (430 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 17 February 2021, by American astronomers Scott Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chad Trujillo using the 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope of the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii, and announced on 17 December 2021. It was 89.4 astronomical units from the Sun when it was discovered, making it the ninth-most distant known Solar System object from the Sun as of December 2021. It has been identified in several precovery images as far back as 10 March 2005.
2020 BE102 is a trans-Neptunian object in the scattered disc, around 350 kilometres (220 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 24 January 2020, by American astronomers Scott Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chad Trujillo using the 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope of the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii, and announced on 31 May 2021. It was 111.2 astronomical units from the Sun when it was discovered, making it the third-farthest known Solar System object from the Sun as of May 2022, after 2018 VG18 (124 AU) and 2018 AG37 (~132 AU).
2021 RR205 is an extreme trans-Neptunian object discovered by astronomers Scott Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chad Trujillo with the Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory on 5 September 2021. It resides beyond the outer extent of the Kuiper belt on a distant and highly eccentric orbit detached from Neptune's gravitational influence, with a large perihelion distance of 55.5 astronomical units (AU). Its large orbital semi-major axis (~1,000 AU) suggests it is potentially from the inner Oort cloud. 2021 RR205 and 2013 SY99 both lie in the 50–75 AU perihelion gap that separates the detached objects from the more distant sednoids; dynamical studies indicate that such objects in the inner edge this gap weakly experience "diffusion", or inward orbital migration due to minuscule perturbations by Neptune. While Sheppard considers 2021 RR205 a sednoid, researchers Yukun Huang and Brett Gladman do not.