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Sunday 8 April 2012

2010 KZ39 - 23th Largest TNO? 10th Largest Cubewano ?

2010 KZ39 is a large trans-Neptunian object. 2010 KZ39 is possibly the 23th largest TNO and 10th largest Cubewano currently known.

Discovery

2010 KZ39 was discovered by Andrzej Udalski, Scott S. Sheppard, M. Szymanski and Chad Trujillo on May 21, 2010 at Las Campanas Observatory, located in the southern Atacama Desert of Chile.

2010 KZ39 has been observed 19 times over two oppositions.

Stats

Estimated Diameter: 661 km (440 – 980 km)
Aphelion: 52.5 AU
Perihelion: 39.11 AU
Semi-major axis: 45.75 AU
Orbital Period: 309.44 years
Rotation period: ?
Date discovered: 2010.5.21
Satellite: ?
Classification: TNO, KBO - Cubewano

Orbit

2010 KZ39 is currently 46.3 AU from the Sun. Using the best-fit values for its orbit it is expected to come to perihelion in 2085.

Physical Characteristics

Very little is known about 2010 KZ39.

How big is it?

2010 KZ39 is so far away in the outer solar system that we don't know for sure how large it is. Because all we see is a dot of light, which is sunlight reflected off the surface of the TNO. But we don't know if the object is bright because it is large or if it is bright because it is highly reflective or both.

Dwarf planet candidate?

Assuming a generic trans-Neptunian albedo of 0.09, it would be about 735 km in diameter. But since its albedo is unknown and it has a preliminary absolute magnitude of 3.9, it could easily be somewhere between 440 (albedo: 0.25) and 980 km (albedo: 0.05) in diameter.

Mike Brown's automatically updated website lists it as a highly likely dwarf planet.

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