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Wednesday, 14 March 2012

(278361) 2007 JJ43 - 16th Largest TNO?

(278361) 2007 JJ43 is a large trans-Neptunian object (TNO). 2007 JJ43 is possibly the 16th largest TNO currently known.

Discovery

2007 JJ43's discovery images were taken on May 14, 2007 at Palomar Observatory.

Stats

Estimated Diameter: 694 km (650 - 800 km)
Aphelion: 55.37 AU
Perihelion: 40.29 AU
Semi-major axis: 47.8 AU
Orbital Period: 330.53 years
Rotation period: ? hours
Date discovered: 2007.5.14
Satellite: ?
Classification: TNO, other

Orbit

2007 JJ43 is orbiting the Sun near the outer edge of the Kuiper belt. As of 2012, 2007 JJ43 is about 41.5 AU from the Sun.

How big is it?

2007 JJ43 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

2007 JJ43's absolute magnitude of 3.7 is one of the twenty brightest exhibited by TNOs. Assuming it has a typical albedo, this would make it roughly the same size as Ixion (~650–800 km diameter).

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

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