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A distant minor planet, or distant object, is any minor planet found beyond Jupiter in the outer Solar System that is not commonly thought of as an "asteroid". The umbrella term is used by IAU's Minor Planet Center (MPC), [1] which is responsible for the identification, designation and orbit computation of these objects. [2] As of July 2024 [update] , the MPC maintains 5710 distant objects in its data base. [3]
Most distant minor planets are trans-Neptunian objects and centaurs, while relatively few are damocloids, Neptune trojans or Uranus trojans. All distant objects have a semi-major axis (average distance from the Sun) greater than 6 AU. [3] This threshold, which is just beyond the orbit of Jupiter (5.2 AU), ensures that the vast majority of "true asteroids" – such as the near-Earth, Mars-crosser, main-belt and Jupiter trojan populations – are excluded from the distant minor planets. [3]
5264 Telephus is a large Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 70 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 17 May 1991, by American astronomer couple Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California, and later named after King Telephus from Greek mythology. The dark and possibly elongated D-type asteroid belongs to the 50 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 9.5 hours.
5027 Androgeos is a large Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 59 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 21 January 1988, by American astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California. The dark D-type asteroid is one of the 70 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 11.4 hours. It was named from Greek mythology after the warrior Androgeos, who was killed by Aeneas.
2207 Antenor is a large Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 92 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 19 August 1977, by Russian astronomer Nikolai Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj on the Crimean peninsula. The dark D-type asteroid is one of the 30 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 7.97 hours. It was named for the Trojan hero and sage Antenor, from Greek mythology. In October 2018, it was reported that Antenor is likely a binary system. If confirmed, it would be 5th known binary Jupiter trojan.
3793 Leonteus is a large Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 90 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 11 October 1985, by American astronomer couple Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California, United States. The D-type Jovian asteroid belongs to the 30 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 5.6 hours. It was named after the hero Leonteus from Greek mythology.
4832 Palinurus is a Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 52 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 October 1988, by American astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California. The dark D-type asteroid belongs to the 90 largest Jupiter trojans and has a short rotation period of 5.3 hours. It was named after Aeneas' navigator, Palinurus, from Greek mythology.
2357 Phereclos is a large Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 95 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 1 January 1981, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the United States. The dark and possibly spherical D-type asteroid belongs to the 30 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 14.4 hours. It was named after the shipbuilder Phereclos from Greek mythology.
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). In contrast to the eight official planets of the Solar System, all minor planets fail to clear their orbital neighborhood.
4489 Dracius,, is a large Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 90 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 15 January 1988, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the United States. The dark D-type asteroid belongs to the 50 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 12.58 hours. It was named after Dracius from Greek mythology, who was a commander of the Epeans who fought against Hector.
4715 Medesicaste (prov. designation: 1989 TS1) is a dark Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 64 kilometers (40 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 9 October 1989, by Japanese astronomer Yoshiaki Oshima at the Gekko Observatory east of Shizuoka, Japan. The assumed C-type asteroid belongs to the 70 largest Jupiter trojans. It is possibly elongated in shape and has a rotation period of 8.8 hours. It was named from Greek mythology after Medesicaste, an illegitimate daughter of Trojan King Priam.
5258 Rhoeo, provisional designation: 1989 AU1, is a Jupiter trojan and member of the Eurybates family from the Greek camp, approximately 53 kilometers (33 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 1 January 1989, by Japanese astronomer Yoshiaki Oshima at the Gekko Observatory, east of Shizuoka, Japan. The assumed C-type asteroid belongs to the 90 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 19.9 hours. It was named from Greek mythology after Rhoeo, lover of Apollo and mother of his son Anius.
6144 Kondojiro (1994 EQ3) is an asteroid discovered on March 14, 1994 by Kin Endate and Kazuro Watanabe at the Kitami Observatory in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan. It is named after Jiro Kondo, a Japanese Egyptologist and professor of archaeology at Waseda University.
6545 Leitus, provisional designation:1986 TR6, is a Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 53 kilometers (33 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 5 October 1986, by Slovak astronomer Milan Antal at the Piwnice Astronomical Observatory in Poland. The dark D-type asteroid has a rotation period of 16.3 hours and belongs to the 90 largest Jupiter trojans. Numbered in 1995, it was named in 2021, after the Argonaut Leitus from Greek mythology, who fought in the Trojan War.
2010 GZ60 was originally estimated by JPL to be a near-Earth asteroid approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter. But is now known to be an asteroid from the inner region of the asteroid belt that does not get closer than 1.5 AU (220 million km) to Earth.
(15502) 1999 NV27 (provisional designation 1999 NV27) is a Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 53 kilometers (33 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 14 July 1999, by astronomers with the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research at the Lincoln Lab's ETS near Socorro, New Mexico, in the United States. The dark Jovian asteroid has a rotation period of 15.1 hours and belongs to the 90 largest Jupiter trojans. It has not been named since its numbering in June 2000.
(15977) 1998 MA11 (provisional designation 1998 MA11) is a Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 19 June 1998, by astronomers with the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research at the Lincoln Lab's ETS near Socorro, New Mexico, in the United States. The suspected tumbler is also a slow rotator with a period of 250 hours. It has not been named since its numbering in July 2000.
In planetary science, the term unusual minor planet, or unusual object, is used for a minor planet that possesses an unusual physical or orbital characteristic. For the Minor Planet Center (MPC), which operates under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union, any non-classical main-belt asteroid, which account for the vast majority of all minor planets, is an unusual minor planet. These include the near-Earth objects and Trojans as well as the distant minor planets such as centaurs and trans-Neptunian objects. In a narrower sense, the term is used for a group of bodies – including main-belt asteroids, Mars-crossers, centaurs and otherwise non-classifiable minor planets – that show a high orbital eccentricity, typically above 0.5 and/or a perihelion of less than 6 AU. Similarly, an unusual asteroid (UA) is an inner Solar System object with a high eccentricity and/or inclination but with a perihelion larger than 1.3 AU, which does exclude the near-Earth objects.