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Sunday, 12 February 2012

(202421) 2005 UQ513 - 12th Largest TNO? 4th Largest Cubewano ?

2005 UQ513 is a large trans-Neptunian object. 2005 UQ513 is possibly the 12th largest TNO and 4th largest Cubewano currently known.

Discovery

2005 UQ513 is discovered on 21 Oct 2005 by Michael E. Brown, Chadwick A. Trujillo and David Lincoln Rabinowitz at Palomar Observatory. 2005 UQ513 has precovery images back to 1990.

Stats

Estimated Diameter: 748 km (550 - 1240 km)
Aphelion: 49.63 AU
Perihelion: 37.0 AU
Semi-major axis: 43.31 AU
Orbital Period: 285.12 years
Rotation period: ? hours
Date discovered: 2005.10.21
Satellite: ?
Classification: TNO, KBO - Cubewano

Orbit

2005 UQ513 is currently 48.7 AU from the Sun. It will come to perihelion around 2124.

2005 UQ513 shows signs of weak water ice.

Dwarf-planet status

Michael E. Brown's automatically updated website lists 2005 UQ513 as a highly likely dwarf planet, but the diameter of the object has never been measured.

How big is it?

2005 UQ513 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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