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Sunday, 12 February 2012

(174567) 2003 MW12 - 11th Largest TNO? 3rd Largest Cubewano ?

2003 MW12 is a large trans-Neptunian object. 2003 MW12 is possibly the 11th largest TNO and 3rd largest Cubewano currently known.

Discovery

2003 MW12 was discovered on June 21, 2003 by Jeffrey A. Larsen with the Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory. 2003 MW12 has precovery images back to 1980.

Stats

Estimated Diameter: 748 km (500 - 1130 km)
Aphelion: 52.28 AU
Perihelion: 39.62 AU
Semi-major axis: 45.95 AU
Orbital Period: 311.51 years
Rotation period: 5.9 hours
Date discovered: 2003.6.21
Satellite: ?
Classification: TNO, KBO - Cubewano

Orbit

2003 MW12 is currently 47.5 AU from the Sun, and will come to perihelion around November 2096.

Dwarf-planet status

Michael E. Brown's automatically updated website lists 2003 MW12 as a highly likely dwarf planet, but the diameter of the object has never been measured.

How big is it?

2003 MW12 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.

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