Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | S. S. Sheppard D. J. Tholen C. Trujillo |
Discovery site | Mauna Kea Obs. |
Discovery date | 5 September 2021 |
Designations | |
MPC designation | 2021 RR205 |
Minor planet category | TNO · detached · distant |
Orbital characteristics (barycentric) | |
Epoch 25 February 2023 (JD 2460000.5) | |
Uncertainty parameter 3 | |
Observation arc | 5.11 yr (1,867 days) |
Earliest precovery date | 24 July 2017 |
Aphelion | 1926 AU |
Perihelion | 55.541 AU |
Semi-major axis | 990.9 AU |
Eccentricity | 0.94395 |
Orbital period (sidereal) | 31173 yr |
Mean anomaly | 0.363° |
Mean motion | 0° 0 0.114 / day |
Inclination | 7.644° |
Longitude of ascending node | 108.345° |
Argument of perihelion | 208.574° |
Physical characteristics | |
Mean diameter | 100–300 km (est. 0.04–0.2) |
Apparent magnitude | 24.6 |
Absolute magnitude (H) | 6.77±0.11 · 6.74 |
2021 RR205 is an extreme trans-Neptunian object discovered by astronomers Scott Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chad Trujillo with the Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory on 5 September 2021. It resides beyond the outer extent of the Kuiper belt on a distant and highly eccentric orbit detached from Neptune's gravitational influence, with a large perihelion distance of 55.5 astronomical units (AU). Its large orbital semi-major axis (~1,000 AU) suggests it is potentially from the inner Oort cloud. 2021 RR205 and 2013 SY99 both lie in the 50–75 AU perihelion gap that separates the detached objects from the more distant sednoids; dynamical studies indicate that such objects in the inner edge this gap weakly experience "diffusion", or inward orbital migration due to minuscule perturbations by Neptune. While Sheppard considers 2021 RR205 a sednoid, researchers Yukun Huang and Brett Gladman do not.
2021 RR205's heliocentric distance was 60 AU when it was discovered. It has been detected in precovery observations by the Dark Energy Survey at Cerro Tololo Observatory from as early as July 2017. It last passed perihelion in the early 1990s and is now moving outbound from the Sun.
References
- ^ "MPEC-2022-S118 : 2021 RR205". Minor Planet Electronic Circular. Minor Planet Center. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: (2021 RR205)" (2022-09-03 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ "2021 RR205". Minor Planet Center. International Astronomical Union. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ "JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris for 2021 RR205 at epoch JD 2460000.5". JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 21 September 2022. Solution using the Solar System Barycenter. Ephemeris Type: Elements and Center: @0)
- "Asteroid Size Estimator". Center for Near Earth Object Studies. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ Bannister, Michele; Shankman, Cory; Volk, Katherine (2017). "OSSOS: V. Diffusion in the orbit of a high-perihelion distant Solar System object". The Astronomical Journal. 153 (6): 262. arXiv:1704.01952. Bibcode:2017AJ....153..262B. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa6db5. S2CID 3502267.
- Sheppard, Scott S. "Scott Sheppard Small Body Discoveries". Earth and Planets Laboratory. Carnegie Institution for Science. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
- Huang, Yukun; Gladman, Brett (February 2024). "Primordial Orbital Alignment of Sednoids". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 962 (2): 6. arXiv:2310.20614. Bibcode:2024ApJ...962L..33H. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ad2686. L33.
External links
- 2021 RR205 at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
- 2021 RR205 at the JPL Small-Body Database
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