1.
Centaur (minor planet)
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Centaurs are minor planets with a semi-major axis between those of the outer planets. They have unstable orbits that cross or have crossed the orbits of one or more of the giant planets, Centaurs typically behave with characteristics of both asteroids and comets. They are named after the centaurs that were a mixture of horse. It has been estimated there are around 44,000 centaurs in the Solar System with diameters larger than 1 km. The first centaur to be discovered, under the definition of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, however, they were not recognized as a distinct population until the discovery of 2060 Chiron in 1977. The largest confirmed centaur is 10199 Chariklo, which at 260 km in diameter is as big as a mid-sized main-belt asteroid, however, the lost centaur 1995 SN55 may be somewhat larger. No centaur has been photographed up close, although there is evidence that Saturns moon Phoebe, imaged by the Cassini probe in 2004, in addition, the Hubble Space Telescope has gleaned some information about the surface features of 8405 Asbolus. As of 2008, three centaurs have been found to display comet-like comas, Chiron,60558 Echeclus, and 166P/NEAT, Chiron and Echeclus are therefore classified as both asteroids and comets. Other centaurs, such as 52872 Okyrhoe and 2012 CG, are suspected of having shown comas, any centaur that is perturbed close enough to the Sun is expected to become a comet. The generic definition of a centaur is a body that orbits the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune and crosses the orbits of one or more of the giant planets. Though nowadays the MPC often lists centaurs and scattered disc objects together as a single group, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory similarly defines centaurs as having a semi-major axis, a, between those of Jupiter and Neptune. In contrast, the Deep Ecliptic Survey defines centaurs using a classification scheme. These classifications are based on the change in behavior of the present orbit when extended over 10 million years. The DES defines centaurs as non-resonant objects whose instantaneous perihelia are less than the osculating semi-major axis of Neptune at any time during the simulation and this definition is intended to be synonymous with planet-crossing orbits and to suggest comparatively short lifetimes in the current orbit. The collection The Solar System Beyond Neptune defines objects with an axis between those of Jupiter and Neptune and a Jupiter – Tisserands parameter above 3. The JPL Small-Body Database lists 324 centaurs, there are an additional 65 trans-Neptunian objects with a perihelion closer than the orbit of Uranus. The Committee on Small Body Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union has not formally weighed in on either side of the debate, thus far, only the binary objects Ceto and Phorcys and Typhon and Echidna have been named according to the new policy. Other objects caught between these differences in classification methods include 944 Hidalgo which was discovered in 1920 and is listed as a centaur in the JPL Small-Body Database
2.
Neptune trojan
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Neptune trojans are bodies in orbit around the Sun that orbit near one of the stable Lagrangian points of Neptune. They therefore have approximately the same period as Neptune and follow roughly the same orbital path. Seventeen Neptune trojans are known, of which thirteen orbit near the Sun–Neptune L4 Lagrangian point 60° ahead of Neptune. The Neptune trojans are termed trojans by analogy with the Jupiter trojans and it is suspected that large Neptune trojans could outnumber Jupiter trojans by an order of magnitude. In 2010, the discovery of the first known L5 Neptune trojan,2008 LC18, was announced, Neptunes trailing L5 region is currently very difficult to observe because it is along the line-of-sight to the center of the Milky Way, an area of the sky crowded with stars. However, New Horizons may not have had sufficient downlink bandwidth, in 2001, the first Neptune trojan was discovered,2001 QR322, near Neptunes L4 region, and with it the fifth known populated stable reservoir of small bodies in the Solar System. In 2005, the discovery of the high-inclination trojan 2005 TN53 has indicated that the Neptune trojans populate thick clouds, on August 12,2010, the first L5 trojan,2008 LC18, was announced. It was discovered by a survey that scanned regions where the light from the stars near the Galactic Center is obscured by dust clouds. This suggests that large L5 trojans are as common as large L4 trojans, to within uncertainty and it would have been possible for the New Horizons spacecraft to investigate L5 Neptune trojans discovered by 2014, when it passed through this region of space en route to Pluto. Some of the patches where the light from the Galactic Center is obscured by dust clouds are along New Horizonss flight path, allowing detection of objects that the spacecraft could image. 2011 HM102, the highest-inclination Neptune trojan known, was just bright enough for New Horizons to observe it in end-2013 at a distance of 1.2 AU. However, New Horizons may not have had sufficient downlink bandwidth, the orbits of Neptune trojans are highly stable, Neptune may have retained up to 50% of the original post-migration trojan population over the age of the Solar System. Neptunes L5 can host stable trojans equally well as its L4, Neptune trojans can librate up to 30° from their associated Lagrangian points with a 10, 000-year period. Neptune trojans that escape enter orbits similar to centaurs, although Neptune cannot currently capture stable trojans, roughly 2. 8% of the centaurs within 34 AU are predicted to be Neptune co-orbitals. Of these, 54% would be in horseshoe orbits, 10% would be quasi-satellites, the unexpected high-inclination trojans are the key to understanding the origin and evolution of the population as a whole. The existence of high-inclination Neptune trojans points to a capture during planetary migration instead of in situ or collisional formation. The estimated equal number of large L5 and L4 trojans indicates that there was no gas drag during capture, the capture of Neptune trojans during a migration of the planets occurs via process similar to the chaotic capture of Jupiter trojans in the Nice model. When Uranus and Neptune are near but not in a mean-motion resonance the period at which the locations where Uranus passes Neptune circulate can resonate with the periods of Neptune trojans
3.
Trans-Neptunian object
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A trans-Neptunian object is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune,30 astronomical units. Twelve minor planets with a semi-major axis greater than 150 AU and perihelion greater than 30 AU are known, the first trans-Neptunian object to be discovered was Pluto in 1930. It took until 1992 to discover a second trans-Neptunian object orbiting the Sun directly,1992 QB1, as of February 2017 over 2,300 trans-Neptunian objects appear on the Minor Planet Centers List of Transneptunian Objects. Of these TNOs,2,000 have a perihelion farther out than Neptune, as of November 2016,242 of these have their orbits well-enough determined that they have been given a permanent minor planet designation. The largest known object is Pluto, followed by Eris,2007 OR10, Makemake. The Kuiper belt, scattered disk, and Oort cloud are three divisions of this volume of space, though treatments vary and a few objects such as Sedna do not fit easily into any division. The orbit of each of the planets is slightly affected by the influences of the other planets. Discrepancies in the early 1900s between the observed and expected orbits of Uranus and Neptune suggested that there were one or more additional planets beyond Neptune, the search for these led to the discovery of Pluto in February 1930, which was too small to explain the discrepancies. Revised estimates of Neptunes mass from the Voyager 2 flyby in 1989 showed that the problem was spurious, Pluto was easiest to find because it has the highest apparent magnitude of all known trans-Neptunian objects. It also has an inclination to the ecliptic than most other large TNOs. After Plutos discovery, American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh continued searching for years for similar objects. For a long time, no one searched for other TNOs as it was believed that Pluto. Only after the 1992 discovery of a second TNO,1992 QB1, a broad strip of the sky around the ecliptic was photographed and digitally evaluated for slowly moving objects. Hundreds of TNOs were found, with diameters in the range of 50 to 2,500 kilometers, Pluto and Eris were eventually classified as dwarf planets by the International Astronomical Union. Kuiper belt objects are classified into the following two groups, Resonant objects are locked in an orbital resonance with Neptune. Objects with a 1,2 resonance are called twotinos, and objects with a 2,3 resonance are called plutinos, after their most prominent member, classical Kuiper belt objects have no such resonance, moving on almost circular orbits, unperturbed by Neptune. Examples are 1992 QB1,50000 Quaoar and Makemake, the scattered disc contains objects farther from the Sun, usually with very irregular orbits. A typical example is the most massive known TNO, Eris, scattered-extended —Scattered-extended objects have a Tisserand parameter greater than 3 and have a time-averaged eccentricity greater than 0
4.
Kuiper belt
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It is similar to the asteroid belt, but it is far larger—20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies, although many asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles, such as methane, ammonia and water. The Kuiper belt is home to three officially recognized dwarf planets, Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake, some of the Solar Systems moons, such as Neptunes Triton and Saturns Phoebe, are also thought to have originated in the region. The Kuiper belt was named after Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, though he did not actually predict its existence, in 1992,1992 QB1 was discovered, the first Kuiper belt object since Pluto. Since its discovery, the number of known KBOs has increased to over a thousand, the Kuiper belt should not be confused with the theorized Oort cloud, which is a thousand times more distant and is mostly spherical. The objects within the Kuiper belt, together with the members of the scattered disc, Pluto is the largest and most-massive member of the Kuiper belt and the largest and the second-most-massive known TNO, surpassed only by Eris in the scattered disc. Originally considered a planet, Plutos status as part of the Kuiper belt caused it to be reclassified as a planet in 2006. It is compositionally similar to other objects of the Kuiper belt, and its orbital period is characteristic of a class of KBOs, known as plutinos. After the discovery of Pluto in 1930, many speculated that it not be alone. The region now called the Kuiper belt was hypothesized in various forms for decades and it was only in 1992 that the first direct evidence for its existence was found. The number and variety of speculations on the nature of the Kuiper belt have led to continued uncertainty as to who deserves credit for first proposing it. The first astronomer to suggest the existence of a population was Frederick C. That same year, astronomer Armin O. Leuschner suggested that Pluto may be one of many long-period planetary objects yet to be discovered. Kuiper was operating on the common in his time that Pluto was the size of Earth and had therefore scattered these bodies out toward the Oort cloud or out of the Solar System. Were Kuipers hypothesis correct, there would not be a Kuiper belt today, the hypothesis took many other forms in the following decades. Cameron postulated the existence of a mass of small material on the outskirts of the solar system. Observation, however, ruled out this hypothesis, in 1977, Charles Kowal discovered 2060 Chiron, an icy planetoid with an orbit between Saturn and Uranus. He used a blink comparator, the device that had allowed Clyde Tombaugh to discover Pluto nearly 50 years before
5.
Classical Kuiper belt object
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A classical Kuiper belt object, also called a cubewano, is a low-eccentricity Kuiper belt object that orbits beyond Neptune and is not controlled by an orbital resonance with Neptune. Cubewanos have orbits with semi-major axes in the 40–50 AU range and, unlike Pluto and that is, they have low-eccentricity and sometimes low-inclination orbits like the classical planets. The name cubewano derives from the first trans-Neptunian object found after Pluto, similar objects found later were often called QB1-os, or cubewanos, after this object, though the term classical is much more frequently used in the scientific literature. Most cubewanos are found between the 2,3 orbital resonance with Neptune and the 1,2 resonance,50000 Quaoar, for example, has a near-circular orbit close to the ecliptic. Plutinos, on the hand, have more eccentric orbits bringing some of them closer to the Sun than Neptune. The majority of objects, have low inclinations and near-circular orbits, a smaller population is characterised by highly inclined, more eccentric orbits. The Deep Ecliptic Survey reports the distributions of the two populations, one with the inclination centered at 4. 6° and another with inclinations extending beyond 30°, the vast majority of KBOs have inclinations of less than 5° and eccentricities of less than 0.1. The hot and cold populations are different, more than 30% of all cubewanos are in low inclination. The parameters of the orbits are more evenly distributed, with a local maximum in moderate eccentricities in 0. 15–0.2 range. See also the comparison with scattered disk objects, when orbital inclinations are compared, hot cubewanos can be easily distinguished by their higher inclinations, as the plutinos typically keep orbits below 20°. In addition to the orbital characteristics, the two populations display different physical characteristics. The difference in colour between the red cold population and more heterogeneous hot population was observed as early as in 2002, another difference between the low-inclination and high-inclination classical objects is the observed number of binary objects. Binaries are quite common on low-inclination orbits and are typically similar-brightness systems, binaries are less common on high-inclination orbits and their components typically differ in brightness. There is no definition of cubewano or classical KBO. However, the terms are used to refer to objects free from significant perturbation from Neptune. The Minor Planet Center and the Deep Ecliptic Survey do not list cubewanos using the same criteria, many TNOs classified as cubewanos by the MPC are classified as ScatNear by the DES. Dwarf planet Makemake is such a borderline classical cubewano/scatnear object,2002 KX14 may be an inner cubewano near the plutinos. Furthermore, there is evidence that the Kuiper belt has an edge, in that an apparent lack of objects beyond 47–49 AU was suspected as early as 1998
6.
Plutino
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In astronomy, a plutino is a trans-Neptunian object in 2,3 mean-motion resonance with Neptune. For every 2 orbits that a plutino makes, Neptune orbits 3 times, the term plutino derived from the dwarf planet Pluto, the largest and the first plutino discovered. The term does not imply common physical characteristics, Plutinos are named after mythological creatures associated with the underworld. Plutinos form the part of the Kuiper belt and represent about a quarter of the known Kuiper belt objects. Plutinos are the largest class of the resonant trans-Neptunian objects, aside from Pluto itself, the first plutino,1993 RO, was discovered on September 16,1993. It is thought that objects that are currently in mean orbital resonances with Neptune initially followed independent heliocentric paths. As Neptune migrated outward early in the Solar Systems history, the bodies it approached would have been scattered, during this process, the 3,2 resonance is the strongest and most stable among all resonances. This is the reason it contains the largest number of bodies. The orbital periods of plutinos cluster around 247.3 years, the gravitational influence of Pluto is usually neglected given its small mass. However, the width is very narrow and only a few times larger than Pluto’s Hill sphere. Consequently, depending on the eccentricity, some plutinos will be driven out of the resonance by interactions with Pluto. Numerical simulations suggest that the orbits of plutinos with an eccentricity 10%–30% smaller or larger than that of Pluto are not stable over Ga timescales, the plutinos brighter than HV=6 include, David Jewitt on Plutinos Minor Planet Center, List of TNOs MPC List of Distant Minor Planets
7.
Scattered disc
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The scattered disc is a distant circumstellar disc in the Solar System that is sparsely populated by icy minor planets, a subset of the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects. The scattered-disc objects have orbital eccentricities ranging as high as 0.8, inclinations as high as 40° and these extreme orbits are thought to be the result of gravitational scattering by the gas giants, and the objects continue to be subject to perturbation by the planet Neptune. Although the closest scattered-disc objects approach the Sun at about 30–35 AU and this makes scattered objects among the most distant and coldest objects in the Solar System. Eventually, perturbations from the giant planets send such objects towards the Sun, many Oort cloud objects are also thought to have originated in the scattered disc. Detached objects are not sharply distinct from scattered disc objects, during the 1980s, the use of CCD-based cameras in telescopes made it possible to directly produce electronic images that could then be readily digitized and transferred to digital images. Because the CCD captured more light than film and the blinking could now be done at a computer screen. A flood of new discoveries was the result, over a thousand objects were detected between 1992 and 2006. The first scattered-disc object to be recognised as such was 1996 TL66, three more were identified by the same survey in 1999,1999 CV118,1999 CY118, and 1999 CF119. The first object presently classified as an SDO to be discovered was 1995 TL8, as of 2011, over 200 SDOs have been identified, including 2007 UK126,2002 TC302, Eris, Sedna and 2004 VN112. Known trans-Neptunian objects are divided into two subpopulations, the Kuiper belt and the scattered disc. A third reservoir of trans-Neptunian objects, the Oort cloud, has been hypothesized, some researchers further suggest a transitional space between the scattered disc and the inner Oort cloud, populated with detached objects. Those in 3,2 resonances are known as plutinos, because Pluto is the largest member of their group, in contrast to the Kuiper belt, the scattered-disc population can be disturbed by Neptune. Scattered-disc objects come within range of Neptune at their closest approaches. Some objects, like 1999 TD10, blur the distinction and the Minor Planet Center, the MPC also makes a clear distinction between the Kuiper belt and the scattered disc, separating those objects in stable orbits from those in scattered orbits. Another term used is scattered Kuiper-belt object for bodies of the scattered disc and this delineation is inadequate over the age of the Solar System, since bodies trapped in resonances could pass from a scattering phase to a non-scattering phase numerous times. That is, trans-Neptunian objects could travel back and forth between the Kuiper belt and the disc over time. In the a >30 AU region, the region of the Solar System populated by objects with semi-major axes greater than 30 AU, the Minor Planet Center classifies the trans-Neptunian object 90377 Sedna as a scattered-disc object. Under this definition, an object with a greater than 40 AU could be classified as outside the scattered disc
8.
Detached object
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Detached objects are a dynamical class of minor planets in the outer reaches of the Solar System and belong to the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects. This reflects the dynamical gradation that can exist between the parameters of the scattered disk and the detached population. At least nine such bodies have been identified, of which the largest, most distant. Those with perihelia greater than 75 AU are termed sednoids, as of 2016, there are two known sednoids, Sedna and 2012 VP113. Detached objects have much larger than Neptunes aphelion. They often have highly elliptical, very large orbits with semi-major axes of up to a few hundred astronomical units, such orbits cannot have been created by gravitational scattering by the giant planets. Instead, a number of explanations have been put forward, including an encounter with a star or a distant planet-sized object. The classification suggested by the Deep Ecliptic Survey team introduces a distinction between scattered-near objects and scattered-extended objects using a Tisserands parameter value of 3. Detached objects are one of five distinct classes of TNO, the other four classes are classical Kuiper-belt objects, resonant objects, scattered-disc objects. Detached objects generally have a distance greater than 40 AU, deterring strong interactions with Neptune. However, there are no boundaries between the scattered and detached regions, since both can coexist as TNOs in an intermediate region with perihelion distance between 37 and 40 AU. One such intermediate body with a well determined orbit is 2003 FY128, although Sedna is officially considered a scattered-disc object by the MPC, its discoverer Michael E. This classification of Sedna as an object is accepted in recent publications. They have orbital periods of more than 300 years and most have only observed over a short observation arc of a couple years. Further improvement in the orbit and potential resonance of objects will help to understand the migration of the giant planets. For example, simulations by Emel’yanenko and Kiseleva in 2007 show that many distant objects could be in resonance with Neptune. They show a 10% likelihood that 2000 CR105 is in a 20,1 resonance, a 38% likelihood that 2003 QK91 is in a 10,3 resonance, and an 84% likelihood that 2000 YW134 is in an 8,3 resonance. The likely dwarf planet 2005 TB190 appears to have less than a 1% likelihood of being in a 4,1 resonance
9.
Sednoid
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A sednoid is a trans-Neptunian object with a perihelion greater than 50 AU and a semi-major axis greater than 150 AU. Only two objects are known from this population,90377 Sedna and 2012 VP113, both of which have greater than 75 AU, but it is suspected that there are many more. These objects lie outside an apparently nearly empty gap in the Solar System starting at about 50 AU and they are usually grouped with the detached objects. The sednoids orbits cannot be explained by perturbations from the giant planets and their orbits could have been disrupted by an as-yet-unknown planet-sized body beyond the Kuiper belt such as the hypothesized Planet Nine. They could have captured from around passing stars, most likely in the Suns birth cluster. The two sednoids, like all of the more extreme detached objects, have an orientation of ≈ 0°.5 Gyr for Sedna. This suggests that one or more undiscovered massive perturbers may exist in the outer Solar System, a super-Earth at 250 AU would cause these objects to librate around ω = 0°±60° for billions of years. There are multiple possible configurations and a low-albedo super-Earth at that distance would have an apparent magnitude below the current all-sky-survey detection limits and this hypothetical super-Earth has been dubbed Telisto and Planet Nine. Larger, more-distant perturbers would also be too faint to be detected, fourteen known objects have a semi-major axis greater than 150 AU, a perihelion beyond Neptune, an argument of perihelion of 340°±55°, and an observation arc of more than 1 year. Each of the mechanisms for Sednas extreme orbit would leave a distinct mark on the structure. If a trans-Neptunian planet was responsible, all such objects would share roughly the same perihelion, if it rotated in the opposite direction, then two populations would form, one with low and one with high inclinations. The perturbations from passing stars would produce a variety of perihelia and inclinations, each dependent on the number. Acquiring a larger sample of objects would therefore help in determining which scenario is most likely. I call Sedna a fossil record of the earliest Solar System, eventually, when other fossil records are found, Sedna will help tell us how the Sun formed and the number of stars that were close to the Sun when it formed. A 2007–2008 survey by Brown, Rabinowitz and Schwamb attempted to locate another member of Sednas hypothetical population, although the survey was sensitive to movement out to 1,000 AU and discovered the likely dwarf planet 2007 OR10, it detected no new sednoids. Subsequent simulations incorporating the new data suggested about 40 Sedna-sized objects probably exist in this region, new icy body hints at planet lurking beyond Pluto
10.
Oort cloud
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The Oort cloud, sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, is a theoretical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals believed to surround the Sun to as far as somewhere between 50,000 and 200,000 AU. It is divided into two regions, a disc-shaped inner Oort cloud and a spherical outer Oort cloud, both regions lie beyond the heliosphere and in interstellar space. The Kuiper belt and the disc, the other two reservoirs of trans-Neptunian objects, are less than one thousandth as far from the Sun as the Oort cloud. The outer limit of the Oort cloud defines the boundary of the Solar System. The outer Oort cloud is only bound to the Solar System. These forces occasionally dislodge comets from their orbits within the cloud, based on their orbits, most of the short-period comets may come from the scattered disc, but some may still have originated from the Oort cloud. In 1932, the Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik postulated that long-period comets originated in a cloud at the outermost edge of the Solar System. The idea was revived by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort as a means to resolve a paradox. Thus, Oort reasoned, a comet could not have formed while in its current orbit, there are two main classes of comet, short-period comets and long-period comets. Ecliptic comets have relatively small orbits, below 10 AU, and follow the ecliptic plane, all long-period comets have very large orbits, on the order of thousands of AU, and appear from every direction in the sky. Oort noted that there was a peak in numbers of comets with aphelia of roughly 20,000 AU. The Oort cloud is thought to occupy a vast space from somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 AU to as far as 50,000 AU from the Sun, some estimates place the outer edge at between 100,000 and 200,000 AU. The region can be subdivided into a spherical outer Oort cloud of 20, 000–50,000 AU, the outer cloud is only weakly bound to the Sun and supplies the long-period comets to inside the orbit of Neptune. The inner Oort cloud is known as the Hills cloud, named after Jack G. Hills. The Hills cloud explains the existence of the Oort cloud after billions of years. The outer Oort cloud may have trillions of objects larger than 1 km, earlier it was thought to be more massive, but improved knowledge of the size distribution of long-period comets led to lower estimates. The mass of the inner Oort cloud has not been characterized, if analyses of comets are representative of the whole, the vast majority of Oort-cloud objects consist of ices such as water, methane, ethane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. The Oort cloud is thought to be a remnant of the protoplanetary disc that formed around the Sun approximately 4.6 billion years ago
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Dwarf planet
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A dwarf planet is a planetary-mass object that is neither a planet nor a natural satellite. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes five dwarf planets, Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, another hundred or so known objects in the Solar System are suspected to be dwarf planets. Individual astronomers recognize several of these, and in August 2011 Mike Brown published a list of 390 candidate objects, Stern states that there are more than a dozen known dwarf planets. Only two of these bodies, Ceres and Pluto, have observed in enough detail to demonstrate that they actually fit the IAUs definition. The IAU accepted Eris as a dwarf planet because it is more massive than Pluto and they subsequently decided that unnamed trans-Neptunian objects with an absolute magnitude brighter than +1 are to be named under the assumption that they are dwarf planets. The classification of bodies in other systems with the characteristics of dwarf planets has not been addressed. Starting in 1801, astronomers discovered Ceres and other bodies between Mars and Jupiter which were for some decades considered to be planets. Between then and around 1851, when the number of planets had reached 23, astronomers started using the asteroid for the smaller bodies. With the discovery of Pluto in 1930, most astronomers considered the Solar System to have nine planets and it was roughly one-twentieth the mass of Mercury, which made Pluto by far the smallest planet. Although it was more than ten times as massive as the largest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres. In the 1990s, astronomers began to find objects in the region of space as Pluto. Many of these shared several of Plutos key orbital characteristics, and Pluto started being seen as the largest member of a new class of objects and this led some astronomers to stop referring to Pluto as a planet. Several terms, including subplanet and planetoid, started to be used for the now known as dwarf planets. By 2005, three trans-Neptunian objects comparable in size to Pluto had been reported and it became clear that either they would also have to be classified as planets, or Pluto would have to be reclassified. Astronomers were also confident that more objects as large as Pluto would be discovered, Eris was discovered in January 2005, it was thought to be slightly larger than Pluto, and some reports informally referred to it as the tenth planet. As a consequence, the became a matter of intense debate during the IAU General Assembly in August 2006. The IAUs initial draft proposal included Charon, Eris, and Ceres in the list of planets, dropping Charon from the list, the new proposal also removed Pluto, Ceres, and Eris, because they have not cleared their orbits. The IAUs final Resolution 5A preserved this three-category system for the bodies orbiting the Sun
12.
Plutoid
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A plutoid or ice dwarf is a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet, i. e. a body orbiting beyond Neptune that is massive enough to be rounded in shape. The term plutoid was adopted by the International Astronomical Union working group Committee on Small Bodies Nomenclature, the term plutoid is not widely used by astronomers, though ice dwarf is not uncommon. There are thought to be thousands of plutoids in the Solar System, the IAU developed this category of astronomical objects as a consequence of its 2006 resolution defining the word planet. Satellites of plutoids are not plutoids themselves, on 24 August 2006, the IAU decided to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet, requiring that a planet must clear the neighbourhood around its orbit. The General Assembly of the IAU further resolved, Pluto is recognized as the prototype of a new category of Trans-Neptunian Objects and this new category had been proposed under the name pluton or a plutonian object earlier in the General Assembly. The former was rejected, in part because pluton is a geological term, the definition of the category also fluctuated during its early stages. Ultimately, the final resolution left the definition, like the name. The term was announced after the Executive Committee meeting, along with a simplified definition. However, due to an error, the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature was not consulted. As of 2009, the term had not been accepted by the scientific community. Prior to the emergence of the term plutoid as an IAU-sanctioned categorization, the term ice dwarf saw some adoption as a near-synonym to the eventual term plutoid. There are large numbers of objects in the Oort cloud. However, it is not clear whether all so-categorized ice dwarfs are actually icier than icy asteroids such as Ceres, nonetheless, Ceres is sometimes called a terrestrial dwarf to distinguish it from Pluto and Eris. This conception foreshadowed the reclassification of Pluto to dwarf planet and plutoid after the discovery of Eris, with the creation of the term dwarf planet, some ambiguity was created as to which of two IAU bodies would be responsible for naming dwarf planets. Eris had been named through the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature, along with announcing the name plutoid, the IAU decision of 11 June 2008 institutionalized this cooperative process involving the two bodies in the naming of new plutoids. In keeping with minor planet naming guidelines, priority will be given to names proposed by the discovery teams, and plutoids may not share a name with a small Solar System body. When the definition of planet was instated at the IAU General Assembly of 2006, Ceres, Pluto. However, precise regulations as to how hydrostatic equilibrium would be measured were left undefined for the time being, without an official procedure for calculating the lower bound of size to be a dwarf planet, no further bodies could be formally recognized as either dwarf planets or plutoids
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Astronomy
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Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry, in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and comets, while the phenomena include supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, more generally, all astronomical phenomena that originate outside Earths atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A related but distinct subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with the study of the Universe as a whole, Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, during the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can play an active role, especially in the discovery. Amateur astronomers have made and contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, Astronomy means law of the stars. Astronomy should not be confused with astrology, the system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two share a common origin, they are now entirely distinct. Generally, either the term astronomy or astrophysics may be used to refer to this subject, however, since most modern astronomical research deals with subjects related to physics, modern astronomy could actually be called astrophysics. Few fields, such as astrometry, are purely astronomy rather than also astrophysics, some titles of the leading scientific journals in this field includeThe Astronomical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal and Astronomy and Astrophysics. In early times, astronomy only comprised the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye, in some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that possibly had some astronomical purpose. Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the naked eye, most of early astronomy actually consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as astrometry. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon, the Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the model of the Universe, or the Ptolemaic system. The Babylonians discovered that lunar eclipses recurred in a cycle known as a saros
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Orbital resonance
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Orbital resonances greatly enhance the mutual gravitational influence of the bodies, i. e. their ability to alter or constrain each others orbits. In most cases, this results in an interaction, in which the bodies exchange momentum. Under some circumstances, a resonant system can be stable and self-correcting, examples are the 1,2,4 resonance of Jupiters moons Ganymede, Europa and Io, and the 2,3 resonance between Pluto and Neptune. Unstable resonances with Saturns inner moons give rise to gaps in the rings of Saturn, thus the 2,3 ratio above means Pluto completes two orbits in the time it takes Neptune to complete three. In the case of resonance relationships between three or more bodies, either type of ratio may be used and the type of ratio will be specified. Since the discovery of Newtons law of gravitation in the 17th century. The stable orbits that arise in a two-body approximation ignore the influence of other bodies and it was Laplace who found the first answers explaining the remarkable dance of the Galilean moons. It is fair to say that this field of study has remained very active since then. Before Newton, there was consideration of ratios and proportions in orbital motions, in what was called the music of the spheres. In general, a resonance may involve one or any combination of the orbit parameters. Act on any scale from short term, commensurable with the orbit periods, to secular. Lead to either long-term stabilization of the orbits or be the cause of their destabilization, a mean-motion orbital resonance occurs when two bodies have periods of revolution that are a simple integer ratio of each other. Depending on the details, this can either stabilize or destabilize the orbit, stabilization may occur when the two bodies move in such a synchronised fashion that they never closely approach. For instance, The orbits of Pluto and the plutinos are stable, despite crossing that of the much larger Neptune, the resonance ensures that, when they approach perihelion and Neptunes orbit, Neptune is consistently distant. Other Neptune-crossing bodies that were not in resonance were ejected from that region by strong perturbations due to Neptune. There are also smaller but significant groups of resonant trans-Neptunian objects occupying the 1,1,3,5,4,7,1,2 and 2,5 resonances, among others, with respect to Neptune. In the asteroid belt beyond 3.5 AU from the Sun, orbital resonances can also destabilize one of the orbits. For small bodies, destabilization is actually far more likely, for instance, In the asteroid belt within 3.5 AU from the Sun, the major mean-motion resonances with Jupiter are locations of gaps in the asteroid distribution, the Kirkwood gaps
15.
Neptune
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Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun in the Solar System. In the Solar System, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter, the planet. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is more massive than its near-twin Uranus. Neptune orbits the Sun once every 164.8 years at a distance of 30.1 astronomical units. It is named after the Roman god of the sea and has the astronomical symbol ♆, Neptune is not visible to the unaided eye and is the only planet in the Solar System found by mathematical prediction rather than by empirical observation. Unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus led Alexis Bouvard to deduce that its orbit was subject to perturbation by an unknown planet. Neptune was subsequently observed with a telescope on 23 September 1846 by Johann Galle within a degree of the predicted by Urbain Le Verrier. Its largest moon, Triton, was discovered shortly thereafter, though none of the remaining known 14 moons were located telescopically until the 20th century. The planets distance from Earth gives it a small apparent size. Neptune was visited by Voyager 2, when it flew by the planet on 25 August 1989, the advent of the Hubble Space Telescope and large ground-based telescopes with adaptive optics has recently allowed for additional detailed observations from afar. Neptunes composition can be compared and contrasted with the Solar Systems other giant planets, however, its interior, like that of Uranus, is primarily composed of ices and rock, which is why Uranus and Neptune are normally considered ice giants to emphasise this distinction. Traces of methane in the outermost regions in part account for the blue appearance. In contrast to the hazy, relatively featureless atmosphere of Uranus, Neptunes atmosphere has active, for example, at the time of the Voyager 2 flyby in 1989, the planets southern hemisphere had a Great Dark Spot comparable to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. These weather patterns are driven by the strongest sustained winds of any planet in the Solar System, because of its great distance from the Sun, Neptunes outer atmosphere is one of the coldest places in the Solar System, with temperatures at its cloud tops approaching 55 K. Temperatures at the centre are approximately 5,400 K. Neptune has a faint and fragmented ring system. On both occasions, Galileo seems to have mistaken Neptune for a star when it appeared close—in conjunction—to Jupiter in the night sky, hence. At his first observation in December 1612, Neptune was almost stationary in the sky because it had just turned retrograde that day and this apparent backward motion is created when Earths orbit takes it past an outer planet. Because Neptune was only beginning its yearly cycle, the motion of the planet was far too slight to be detected with Galileos small telescope
16.
Nice model
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The Nice model is a scenario for the dynamical evolution of the Solar System. It is named for the location of the Observatoire de la Côte dAzur and it proposes the migration of the giant planets from an initial compact configuration into their present positions, long after the dissipation of the initial protoplanetary gas disk. In this way, it differs from earlier models of the Solar Systems formation.5 and ~17 astronomical units, much more closely spaced and compact than in the present. A large, dense disk of small, rock and ice planetesimals, their total about 35 Earth masses, scientists understand so little about the formation of Uranus and Neptune that Levison states. the possibilities concerning the formation of Uranus and Neptune are almost endless. However, it is suggested that this system evolved in the following manner. Planetesimals at the inner edge occasionally pass through gravitational encounters with the outermost giant planet. These planetesimals then similarly scatter off the planet they encounter, successively moving the orbits of Uranus, Neptune. Despite the minute movement each exchange of momentum can produce, cumulatively these planetesimal encounters shift the orbits of the planets by significant amounts and this, in contrast, causes Jupiter to move slightly inward. The low rate of orbital encounters governs the rate at which planetesimals are lost from the disk, after several hundreds of millions of years of slow, gradual migration, Jupiter and Saturn, the two inmost giant planets, cross their mutual 1,2 mean-motion resonance. This resonance increases their eccentricities, destabilizing the entire planetary system. The arrangement of the giant planets alters quickly and dramatically and these ice giants then plough into the planetesimal disk, scattering tens of thousands of planetesimals from their formerly stable orbits in the outer Solar System. This disruption almost entirely scatters the primordial disk, removing 99% of its mass, some of the planetesimals are thrown into the inner Solar System, producing a sudden influx of impacts on the terrestrial planets, the Late Heavy Bombardment. In some 50% of the models of Tsiganis and colleagues, Neptune. As the initial conditions of the model are allowed to vary, each population will be more or less numerous, proving a model of the evolution of the early Solar System is difficult, since the evolution cannot be directly observed. However, the success of any dynamical model can be judged by comparing the population predictions from the simulations to astronomical observations of these populations. At the present time, computer models of the Solar System that are begun with the conditions of the Nice scenario best match many aspects of the observed Solar System. In the Nice model icy planetesimals are scattered onto planet-crossing orbits when the disc is disrupted by Uranus. The migration of outer planets also causes mean-motion and secular resonances to sweep through the inner Solar System, the number of planetesimals that would reach the Moon is consistent with the crater record from the LHB
17.
Semi-major and semi-minor axes
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In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter, a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the widest points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis is one half of the axis, and thus runs from the centre, through a focus. Essentially, it is the radius of an orbit at the two most distant points. For the special case of a circle, the axis is the radius. One can think of the axis as an ellipses long radius. The semi-major axis of a hyperbola is, depending on the convention, thus it is the distance from the center to either vertex of the hyperbola. A parabola can be obtained as the limit of a sequence of ellipses where one focus is fixed as the other is allowed to move arbitrarily far away in one direction. Thus a and b tend to infinity, a faster than b, the semi-minor axis is a line segment associated with most conic sections that is at right angles with the semi-major axis and has one end at the center of the conic section. It is one of the axes of symmetry for the curve, in an ellipse, the one, in a hyperbola. The semi-major axis is the value of the maximum and minimum distances r max and r min of the ellipse from a focus — that is. In astronomy these extreme points are called apsis, the semi-minor axis of an ellipse is the geometric mean of these distances, b = r max r min. The eccentricity of an ellipse is defined as e =1 − b 2 a 2 so r min = a, r max = a. Now consider the equation in polar coordinates, with one focus at the origin, the mean value of r = ℓ / and r = ℓ /, for θ = π and θ =0 is a = ℓ1 − e 2. In an ellipse, the axis is the geometric mean of the distance from the center to either focus. The semi-minor axis of an ellipse runs from the center of the ellipse to the edge of the ellipse, the semi-minor axis is half of the minor axis. The minor axis is the longest line segment perpendicular to the axis that connects two points on the ellipses edge. The semi-minor axis b is related to the axis a through the eccentricity e. A parabola can be obtained as the limit of a sequence of ellipses where one focus is fixed as the other is allowed to move arbitrarily far away in one direction
18.
Giant planet
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A giant planet is any massive planet. They are usually composed of low-boiling-point materials, rather than rock or other solid matter. There are four giant planets in the Solar System, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus. Many extrasolar giant planets have been identified orbiting other stars, giant planets are also sometimes called jovian planets, after Jupiter. They are also known as gas giants. However, many astronomers apply the term only to Jupiter and Saturn, classifying Uranus and Neptune. Both names are misleading, all of the giant planets consist primarily of fluids above their critical points. The principal components are hydrogen and helium in the case of Jupiter and Saturn, the defining differences between a very low-mass brown dwarf and a gas giant are debated. One school of thought is based on formation, the other, part of the debate concerns whether brown dwarfs must, by definition, have experienced nuclear fusion at some point in their history. The term gas giant was coined in 1952 by the fiction writer James Blish and was originally used to refer to all giant planets. Arguably it is something of a misnomer, because throughout most of the volume of these planets the pressure is so high that matter is not in gaseous form. Other than solids in the core and the layers of the atmosphere, all matter is above the critical point. Fluid planet would be an accurate term. Jupiter also has metallic hydrogen near its center, but much of its volume is hydrogen, helium, the observable atmospheres of all these planets are quite thin compared to their radii, only extending perhaps one percent of the way to the center. Thus the observable portions are gaseous, in the outer Solar System, hydrogen and helium are referred to as gases, water, methane, and ammonia as ices, and silicates and metals as rock. When deep planetary interiors are considered, it may not be far off to say that, by ice astronomers mean oxygen and carbon, by rock they mean silicon, and by gas they mean hydrogen and helium. The many ways in which Uranus and Neptune differ from Jupiter, with this terminology in mind, some astronomers have started referring to Uranus and Neptune as ice giants to indicate the predominance of the ices in their interior composition. The alternative term jovian planet refers to the Roman god Jupiter—the genitive form of which is Jovis, objects large enough to start deuterium fusion are called brown dwarfs, and these occupy the mass range between that of large giant planets and the lowest-mass stars
19.
Angular momentum
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In physics, angular momentum is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important quantity in physics because it is a conserved quantity – the angular momentum of a system remains constant unless acted on by an external torque. The definition of momentum for a point particle is a pseudovector r×p. This definition can be applied to each point in continua like solids or fluids, unlike momentum, angular momentum does depend on where the origin is chosen, since the particles position is measured from it. The angular momentum of an object can also be connected to the angular velocity ω of the object via the moment of inertia I. However, while ω always points in the direction of the rotation axis, Angular momentum is additive, the total angular momentum of a system is the vector sum of the angular momenta. For continua or fields one uses integration, torque can be defined as the rate of change of angular momentum, analogous to force. Applications include the gyrocompass, control moment gyroscope, inertial systems, reaction wheels, flying discs or Frisbees. In general, conservation does limit the motion of a system. In quantum mechanics, angular momentum is an operator with quantized eigenvalues, Angular momentum is subject to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, meaning only one component can be measured with definite precision, the other two cannot. Also, the spin of elementary particles does not correspond to literal spinning motion, Angular momentum is a vector quantity that represents the product of a bodys rotational inertia and rotational velocity about a particular axis. Angular momentum can be considered an analog of linear momentum. Thus, where momentum is proportional to mass m and linear speed v, p = m v, angular momentum is proportional to moment of inertia I. Unlike mass, which only on amount of matter, moment of inertia is also dependent on the position of the axis of rotation. Unlike linear speed, which occurs in a line, angular speed occurs about a center of rotation. Therefore, strictly speaking, L should be referred to as the angular momentum relative to that center and this simple analysis can also apply to non-circular motion if only the component of the motion which is perpendicular to the radius vector is considered. In that case, L = r m v ⊥, where v ⊥ = v sin θ is the component of the motion. It is this definition, × to which the moment of momentum refers
20.
90482 Orcus
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90482 Orcus, provisional designation 2004 DW, is a trans-Neptunian object from the Kuiper belt with a large moon, Vanth. It was discovered on 17 February 2004, by American astronomers Michael Brown of Caltech, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory, precovery images taken by the Palomar Observatory as early as 1951, were later obtained from the Digitized Sky Survey. It is probably a dwarf planet, Orcus is a plutino, a trans-Neptunian object that is locked in a 2,3 resonance with the ice giant Neptune, making two revolutions around the Sun to every three of Neptunes. This is much like Pluto, except that it is constrained to always be in the phase of its orbit from Pluto, Orcus is at aphelion when Pluto is at perihelion. Moreover, the aphelion of Orcuss orbit points in nearly the direction from Plutos, although the eccentricities. Because of these similarities and contrasts, along with its large moon Vanth that recalls Plutos large moon Charon and this was a major consideration in selecting its name, as the deity Orcus was the Etruscan equivalent of the Roman Pluto, and later became an alternate name for Pluto. The surface of Orcus is relatively bright with albedo reaching 30%, grey in color, the ice is predominantly in crystalline form, which may be related to past cryovolcanic activity. Other compounds like methane or ammonia may also be present, the existence of a satellite allowed astronomers to determine the mass of the system, which is approximately equal to that of the Saturnian moon Tethys. The ratio of masses of Orcus and Vanth is uncertain, possibly anywhere from 1,33 to 1,12, the diameter of Orcus is estimated to be 761 or 807 km and the diameter of Vanth 378 or 267 km respectively, depending on their relative albedos. Orcus is in 2,3 orbital resonance with Neptune, having a period of 247 years. Orcuss orbit is similar to Plutos, but is oriented differently, although at one point its orbit approaches that of Neptune, the resonance between the two bodies means that Orcus itself is always a great distance away from Neptune. Over a 14, 000-year period Orcus stays more than 18 AU from Neptune, because their mutual resonance with Neptune constrains Orcus and Pluto to remain in opposite phases of their otherwise very similar motions, Orcus is sometimes described as the anti-Pluto. Orcus is currently 48.0 AU from the Sun and will come to aphelion in 2019, simulations by the Deep Ecliptic Survey show that over the next 10 million years Orcus can acquire a perihelion distance as small as 27.8 AU. The rotation period of the primary is not known, different photometric surveys have produced different results. Some show low amplitude variations with periods ranging from 7 to 21 hours, however, the value obtained by Ortiz et al. about 10.5 hours, seems to be the most likely one. The rotational poles of Orcus probably coincide with the poles of its moon. This means that Orcus is currently viewed pole-on, which could explain the absence of any rotational modulation of its brightness. If, however, the primary is tidally locked with the satellite,2004 DW was named after the Roman god of the underworld, Orcus, counterpart of the Greek Pluto
21.
Albedo
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Albedo is a measure for reflectance or optical brightness. It is dimensionless and measured on a scale from zero to one, surface albedo is defined as the ratio of radiation reflected to the radiation incident on a surface. The proportion reflected is not only determined by properties of the surface itself and these factors vary with atmospheric composition, geographic location and time. While bi-hemispherical reflectance is calculated for an angle of incidence. The temporal resolution may range from seconds to daily, seasonal or annual averages, unless given for a specific wavelength, albedo refers to the entire spectrum of solar radiation. Due to measurement constraints, it is given for the spectrum in which most solar energy reaches the surface. This spectrum includes visible light, which explains why surfaces with a low albedo appear dark, albedo is an important concept in climatology, astronomy, and environmental management. The term albedo was introduced into optics by Johann Heinrich Lambert in his 1760 work Photometria, any albedo in visible light falls within a range of about 0.9 for fresh snow to about 0.04 for charcoal, one of the darkest substances. Deeply shadowed cavities can achieve an effective albedo approaching the zero of a black body, when seen from a distance, the ocean surface has a low albedo, as do most forests, whereas desert areas have some of the highest albedos among landforms. Most land areas are in a range of 0.1 to 0.4. The average albedo of Earth is about 0.3 and this is far higher than for the ocean primarily because of the contribution of clouds. Earths surface albedo is regularly estimated via Earth observation satellite sensors such as NASAs MODIS instruments on board the Terra, thereby, the BRDF allows to translate observations of reflectance into albedo. Earths average surface temperature due to its albedo and the effect is currently about 15 °C. If Earth were frozen entirely, the temperature of the planet would drop below −40 °C. If only the land masses became covered by glaciers, the mean temperature of the planet would drop to about 0 °C. In contrast, if the entire Earth was covered by water — a so-called aquaplanet — the average temperature on the planet would rise to almost 27 °C, hence, the actual albedo α can then be given as, α = α ¯ + D α ¯ ¯. Directional-hemispherical reflectance is sometimes referred to as black-sky albedo and bi-hemispherical reflectance as white-sky albedo and these terms are important because they allow the albedo to be calculated for any given illumination conditions from a knowledge of the intrinsic properties of the surface. The albedos of planets, satellites and asteroids can be used to infer much about their properties, the study of albedos, their dependence on wavelength, lighting angle, and variation in time comprises a major part of the astronomical field of photometry
22.
28978 Ixion
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It is very likely to be a dwarf planet, although the IAU has not officially classified it as such. Light-curve-amplitude analysis shows only small deviations, which suggests that Ixion is a spheroid with small albedo spots and it has a diameter of approximately 650 km, making it about the fifth-largest plutino. It is moderately red in light and has a surface made of a mixture of tholin. It was discovered on May 22,2001 by the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and it is named after Ixion, a figure from Greek mythology. More recent estimates suggest that Ixion has an albedo and is smaller than Ceres. Observations of Ixion by Herschel Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope in the part of the spectrum revealed that its size is about 620 km. Ixion is moderately red in the visible light and it also has a higher albedo than the mid-sized red cubewanos. There may be a feature at the wavelength of 0.8 μm in its spectrum. In the near-infrared the spectrum of Ixion is flat and featureless, water ice absorption bands at 1.5 and 2 μm are absent. This is in contrast to Varuna, which has a red slope in the near-infrared as well as prominent water absorption bands. The Very Large Telescope has checked Ixion for cometary activity, Ixion is currently about 41 AU from the Sun, and it is possible that Ixion could develop a coma or temporary atmosphere when it is closer to perihelion. Ixion and Pluto follow similar but differently oriented orbits, Ixion’s perihelion is below the ecliptic whereas Plutos is above it, uncharacteristically for bodies locked in resonance with Neptune, Ixion approaches Pluto with less than 20 degrees of angular separation. Ixion is currently below the ecliptic and will reach its perihelion in 2070, Pluto has passed its perihelion and is descending toward the ecliptic. Ixions orbital period is almost 250 Earth years, about 0. 5% larger than Plutos, Ixion does demonstrate some regular changes in brightness, which are thought to be caused by its rotation. As of 2010, however, the period of Ixion remains undetermined
23.
Pluto
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Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. It was the first Kuiper belt object to be discovered, Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and was originally considered to be the ninth planet from the Sun. After 1992, its planethood was questioned following the discovery of objects of similar size in the Kuiper belt. In 2005, Eris, which is 27% more massive than Pluto, was discovered and this led the International Astronomical Union to define the term planet formally in 2006, during their 26th General Assembly. That definition excluded Pluto and reclassified it as a dwarf planet, Pluto is the largest and second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object directly orbiting the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume but is less massive than Eris, like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is primarily made of ice and rock and is relatively small—about one-sixth the mass of the Moon and one-third its volume. It has an eccentric and inclined orbit during which it ranges from 30 to 49 astronomical units or AU from the Sun. This means that Pluto periodically comes closer to the Sun than Neptune, light from the Sun takes about 5.5 hours to reach Pluto at its average distance. Pluto has five moons, Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos. Pluto and Charon are sometimes considered a system because the barycenter of their orbits does not lie within either body. The IAU has not formalized a definition for binary dwarf planets, on July 14,2015, the New Horizons spacecraft became the first spacecraft to fly by Pluto. During its brief flyby, New Horizons made detailed measurements and observations of Pluto, on October 25,2016, at 05,48 pm ET, the last bit of data was received from New Horizons from its close encounter with Pluto on July 14,2015. In the 1840s, Urbain Le Verrier used Newtonian mechanics to predict the position of the then-undiscovered planet Neptune after analysing perturbations in the orbit of Uranus. Subsequent observations of Neptune in the late 19th century led astronomers to speculate that Uranuss orbit was being disturbed by another planet besides Neptune, by 1909, Lowell and William H. Pickering had suggested several possible celestial coordinates for such a planet. Lowell and his observatory conducted his search until his death in 1916, unknown to Lowell, his surveys had captured two faint images of Pluto on March 19 and April 7,1915, but they were not recognized for what they were. There are fourteen other known prediscovery observations, with the oldest made by the Yerkes Observatory on August 20,1909. Percivals widow, Constance Lowell, entered into a legal battle with the Lowell Observatory over her late husbands legacy. Tombaughs task was to image the night sky in pairs of photographs, then examine each pair
24.
(208996) 2003 AZ84
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2003 AZ84 is a binary trans-Neptunian object from the outer regions of the Solar System, approximately 700 kilometers in diameter. It belongs to the plutinos – a group of planets named after its largest member Pluto – as it orbits in a 2,3 resonance with Neptune in the Kuiper belt. It was discovered on 13 January 2003, by American astronomers Chad Trujillo and its lightcurve amplitude deviates little from that of an ellipsoid, which suggests that it is likely one with small albedo spots. It orbits the Sun in just over 247 Earth years and it is currently 45.3 AU from the Sun and came to aphelion in 1982. It will come to perihelion in 2107, simulations by the Deep Ecliptic Survey show that over the next 10 million years 2003 AZ84 will not come closer than 31.6 AU from the Sun. Two rotational lightcurves of this planet were obtained by Scott Sheppard. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 6.71 and 6.76 hours with a brightness variation of 0.14 and 0.10 in magnitude. The Spitzer Space Telescope has estimated its size at 686±96 km, while an analysis of a combination of Spitzer and these results are in agreement with each other. Its large size 2003 AZ84 makes it a dwarf planet. Its mass is unknown since the satellite has not been recovered, a stellar occultation in 2010 measured a single chord of 573±21 km. But this is only a limit for the diameter of 2003 AZ84 because the chord may not have passed through the center of the body. The spectra and colors of 2003 AZ84 are very similar to those of Orcus, both bodies have a flat featureless spectrum in the visible and moderately strong water ice absorption bands in the near-infrared, although 2003 AZ84 has a lower albedo. Both bodies also have an absorption band near 2.3 μm. Using observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, the discovery of a satellite of 2003 AZ84 was reported in IAUC8812 on 22 February 2007, the object was measured with a separation of 0.22 arcsec and an apparent magnitude difference of 5.0. As of 2012, attempts to recover the satellite have failed, the unrecovered satellite is estimated to be about 68±20 km in diameter. Orbital simulation from JPL / Ephemeris 2003 AZ84 Precovery Images 2003 AZ84 at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
25.
(84922) 2003 VS2
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2003 VS2 is a trans-Neptunian object discovered by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program on November 14,2003. Like Pluto, it is in a 2,3 orbital resonance with Neptune, mike Browns website lists it as highly likely a dwarf planet. However, Brown assumed that VS2 was much bigger than it really is, like Pluto,2003 VS2 is locked in the 3,2 mean-motion resonance with Neptune, although its orbit is significantly less eccentric than Plutos. It also has slightly smaller orbital inclination,2003 VS2 has a significant light-curve amplitude of 0. 21±0.01. The most likely value of the period is 7. 41±0.02 h.2003 VS2 has a moderately red surface with a moderately red color indexes B−V=0.93. Its geometrical albedo is about 15%, in 2007, its diameter was initially estimated by the Spitzer Space Telescope at 725±200 km. However, in 2012, this was reduced to 523. 0+35.1 −34.4 km after new Herschel Space Telescope observations, the latter measurement is considered more reliable. Assuming a Pluto-like density of 2 g/cm3, one can obtain an estimate of about 1. 5×1020 kg. Orbital simulation from JPL / Ephemeris Huge rock-ice body circles Sun 2003 VS2 precovery 2003 VS2 at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
26.
(84719) 2002 VR128
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2002 VR128, also written 2002 VR128, is a trans-Neptunian object. It was discovered in 2002 by Michael Brown and Chad Trujillo, the object is a plutino, an object in 2,3 orbital resonance with Neptune. The size of 2002 VR128 was measured by the Herschel Space Telescope to be 448. 5+42.1 −43.2 km, the surface of 2002 VR128 is red in the visible spectral range. Orbit simulation from NASA JPL site Orbital details from the IAU Minor Planets Center 2002 VR128 at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
27.
38628 Huya
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38628 Huya is a trans-Neptunian object. It is a plutino, being in a 2,3 mean-motion resonance with Neptune and it has a diameter of 458. 0±9.2 km, and it is possibly a dwarf planet, although the IAU has never classified it as such. Light-curve-amplitude analysis shows only small deviations, suggesting that Huya is likely a spheroid with small albedo spots, as of 2010, astronomer Gonzalo Tancredi thought that Huya was very probably a dwarf planet. Huya was discovered in March 2000 by Ignacio Ferrin and announced on 24 October 2000, at the time of its discovery, Huya was the brightest trans-Neptunian object found since Pluto. It was found using data collected at the CIDA Observatory in Venezuela and it was named Huya, after Juyá the Wayuu rain god, in August 2003 by the International Astronomical Union. The Spitzer Space Telescope has estimated Huya to be about 530 kilometres in diameter with a low albedo of around 0.05, the later termination, based on a combination of Spitzer and Herschel measurements, yielded a smaller size of 458. 7±9.2 km. Taking into account that Huya is a binary the diameter of the primary is estimated at 406±16 km, Huya has a moderately red-sloped reflectance spectrum in the visible and near-infrared, suggesting a surface rich in organic material such as tholins. There is an absorption feature near 2 μm possibly belonging to water ice or some water-altered material. Additional absorption features may be present near 0. 6–0.8 μm, Huya is currently 28.5 AU from the Sun and it came to perihelion in December 2014. This means that it is currently inside the orbit of the planet Neptune, like Pluto, this plutino spends part of its orbit closer to the Sun than Neptune, even though their orbits are controlled by Neptune. Huya will be closer to the Sun than Neptune until about July 2029, simulations by the Deep Ecliptic Survey show that, over the next 10 million years, Huya can acquire a perihelion distance as small as 27.28 AU. Plutinos 1996 TP66 and 2004 EW95 get even closer to the Sun, given the long orbit that TNOs have around the Sun, Huya comes to opposition in early May of each year at an apparent magnitude of 19.3. Huya has been observed 131 times, with precovery images back to 1996, the rotation period of Huya is unknown, although a value of 13.50 hours has been tentatively obtained from fragmentary light curve data, it may well be completely erroneous. It has an diameter of 213±30 km and a separation of 1,800 kilometres from primary. Its provisional designation is S/201238628 Huya 1,38628 Huya at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters 37th DPS, Albedos, Diameters of Kuiper Belt and Centaur Objects Planet 10. Tiny Plutino Almost Qualifies Discovery of a bright Trans-Neptunian Object From the Rain Forest to Planet Huya
28.
(33340) 1998 VG44
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1998 VG44, also written as 1998 VG44, is a trans-Neptunian object. It has a 2,3 orbital resonance with the planet Neptune, similar to Pluto and its average distance from the Sun is 39.083 AU with a perihelion of 29.354 AU and an aphelion at 48.813 AU. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.249, and is inclined by 3° and it is about 221 km in diameter, so it is unlikely to be classified as a dwarf planet. It was discovered on November 14,1998, by J. A. Larsen, Nicole M. Danzl and A. Gleason at the Steward Observatory
29.
(15789) 1993 SC
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1993 SC is a trans-Neptunian object of the plutino class. The discovery was made in 1993 at the La Palma Observatory with the Isaac Newton Telescope and it was the second plutino to receive an MPC number. MPC, List of TNOs Grundy, W. M. Noll, K. S. Stephens, diverse albedos of small trans-neptunian objects. Icarus, Volume 176, Issue 1, p. 184-191 Abstract 1993 SC at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
30.
(120216) 2004 EW95
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2004 EW95, provisionally known as 2004 EW95, is a plutino, like Pluto, in a 2,3 resonance with Neptune. For every 2 orbits that a plutino makes, Neptune orbits 3 times, EW95 is currently 27.6 AU from the Sun, and will come to perihelion in 2018. This means that this object is currently inside the orbit of the planet Neptune, like Pluto, this plutino spends part of its orbit closer to the Sun than Neptune is even though their orbits are controlled by Neptune. Simulations by the Deep Ecliptic Survey show that over the next 10 million years EW95 can acquire a perihelion distance as small as 24.8 AU, probable dwarf planet Huya and plutino 1996 TP66 are also currently inside the orbit of Neptune. EW95 comes within 9 AU of Uranus and stays more than 21 AU from Neptune over a 14,000 year period, assuming a generic trans-Neptunian object albedo of 0.09, EW95 is about 175 km in diameter. It has been observed 44 times over 6 oppositions and has a quality of 2. Orbital simulation from JPL / Horizons Ephemeris 2004 EW95 at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
31.
47171 Lempo
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1999 TC36 is a system comprising three trans-Neptunian objects. It was discovered in 1999, by Eric P. Rubenstein, Dr. Rubenstein was searching images taken by Dr. Strolger as part of the Low-Z Supernova Search program. It is classified as a plutino with a 2,3 mean-motion resonance with Neptune and it reached perihelion in July 2015. 1999 TC36 is a system consisting of a central primary, which is itself a binary. The single-body diameter of 1999 TC36 is currently estimated at 393. 1+25.2 −26.8 km. The very low estimated density of 0. 3–0.8 g/cm3 obtained in 2006 would require a high porosity of 50–75%, assuming an equal mixture of rock. The density was revised up to 0. 64+0.15 −0.11 g/cm3 in 2012 when new information from the Herschel became available. For a bulk density in the range 1–2 g/cm3 the porosity is in the range 36–68%,1999 TC36 has a very red spectral slope in visible light and a flat spectrum in near infrared. There is also an absorption feature near the wavelength of 2 μm. The best model reproducing the near infrared spectrum includes tholins, crystalline water ice and these results are for the integrated spectrum of all three components of the system. The moon, discovered from 8 December 2001 observations by C. A, the moon is estimated to only have a mass of about 0. 75×1018 kg. In 2009, analysis of Hubble images revealed that the primary is itself composed of two similar-sized components and this central pair has a semi-major axis of around 867 km and a period of about 1.9 days. Assuming equal albedos of about 0.079, the components are approximately A1=272+17 −19 km. The component B orbits the barycenter of the A1+A2 system, the system mass estimated from the motion of the component B is ×1018 kg. The orbital motion of the A1 and A2 components gives somewhat a higher estimated mass of ×1018 kg, the discrepancy is probably related to unaccounted gravitational interactions of the components in a complex triple system. There exist two main hypotheses on how the system of 1999 TC36 formed. The first one is a giant collision and subsequent reaccretion in the disc, the second one is gravitational capture of a third object by a preexisting binary. The similar sizes of A1 and A2 components favor the latter hypothesis,1999 TC36 was suggested as a target for New Horizons 2, a proposed twin of its namesake that would fly by Jupiter, Uranus, and up to four KBOs
32.
(126154) 2001 YH140
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2001 YH140, also written as 2001 YH140, is a resonant trans-Neptunian object discovered on December 18,2001 by C. A. Trujillo, M. E. Brown. 2001 YH140 is locked in 3,5 mean-motion resonance with Neptune, when it makes three revolutions around the Sun, Neptune makes exactly five. The rotation period of 2001 YH140 is estimated to be 13.25 ±0.2 hours, in 2010 thermal flux from 2001 YH140 in the far-infrared was measured by the Herschel Space Telescope. As a result, its size has been estimated to be 300–390 km.2001 YH140 at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
33.
Ecliptic
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The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun on the celestial sphere, and is the basis for the ecliptic coordinate system. It also refers to the plane of this path, which is coplanar with the orbit of Earth around the Sun, the motions as described above are simplifications. Due to the movement of Earth around the Earth–Moon center of mass, due to further perturbations by the other planets of the Solar System, the Earth–Moon barycenter wobbles slightly around a mean position in a complex fashion. The ecliptic is actually the apparent path of the Sun throughout the course of a year, because Earth takes one year to orbit the Sun, the apparent position of the Sun also takes the same length of time to make a complete circuit of the ecliptic. With slightly more than 365 days in one year, the Sun moves a little less than 1° eastward every day, again, this is a simplification, based on a hypothetical Earth that orbits at uniform speed around the Sun. The actual speed with which Earth orbits the Sun varies slightly during the year, for example, the Sun is north of the celestial equator for about 185 days of each year, and south of it for about 180 days. The variation of orbital speed accounts for part of the equation of time, if the equator is projected outward to the celestial sphere, forming the celestial equator, it crosses the ecliptic at two points known as the equinoxes. The Sun, in its apparent motion along the ecliptic, crosses the equator at these points, one from south to north. The crossing from south to north is known as the equinox, also known as the first point of Aries. The crossing from north to south is the equinox or descending node. Likewise, the ecliptic itself is not fixed, the gravitational perturbations of the other bodies of the Solar System cause a much smaller motion of the plane of Earths orbit, and hence of the ecliptic, known as planetary precession. The combined action of two motions is called general precession, and changes the position of the equinoxes by about 50 arc seconds per year. Once again, this is a simplification, periodic motions of the Moon and apparent periodic motions of the Sun cause short-term small-amplitude periodic oscillations of Earths axis, and hence the celestial equator, known as nutation. Obliquity of the ecliptic is the used by astronomers for the inclination of Earths equator with respect to the ecliptic. It is about 23. 4° and is currently decreasing 0.013 degrees per hundred years due to planetary perturbations, the angular value of the obliquity is found by observation of the motions of Earth and other planets over many years. From 1984, the Jet Propulsion Laboratorys DE series of computer-generated ephemerides took over as the ephemeris of the Astronomical Almanac. Obliquity based on DE200, which analyzed observations from 1911 to 1979, was calculated, jPLs fundamental ephemerides have been continually updated. J. Laskar computed an expression to order T10 good to 0″. 04/1000 years over 10,000 years, all of these expressions are for the mean obliquity, that is, without the nutation of the equator included
34.
(119070) 2001 KP77
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2001 KP77 is a 4,7 resonant trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. It was discovered on May 23,2001, by Marc W. Buie at Cerro Tololo,2001 KP77 has the highest, and thus reddest measured B−V color index of any TNO. On April 19,2002,2001 KP77 set a TNO record B−V of 1.544, in the visible spectrum 2001 KP77 would appear an orange-brown depending on its albedo. Based on a magnitude of 6.93,2001 KP77 is estimated to be between 110 –240 km in diameter. 4,7 Resonance TNO Colors KBO Surface Colors Orbital simulation from JPL / Ephemeris 2001 KP77 at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
35.
(118378) 1999 HT11
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1999 HT11, also written as 1999 HT11, is a trans-Neptunian object in a 4,7 orbital resonance with Neptune. It has a perihelion at 38.858 AU and an aphelion at 49.231 AU and it is about 146 km in diameter. It was discovered on April 17,1999, at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona
36.
(119979) 2002 WC19
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2002 WC19, also written as 2002 WC19, is a twotino, i. e. it is in a 1,2 orbital resonance with Neptune. It was discovered on November 16,2002 at the Palomar Observatory and it is probably a dwarf planet. Knowing how many there are may reveal whether Neptune took roughly 1 million or 10 million years to migrate about 7 AU from its birth location. A natural satellite was reported to be orbiting 2002 WC19 on February 27,2007 and it is estimated to be 2,760 ±250 km from the primary and to be around 139 kilometres in diameter. Orbital simulation from JPL Ephemeris 2002 WC19 at the JPL Small-Body Database Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters
. Bibcode:2009AJ....138..827T. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/138/3/827.
