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15760 Albion
Trans-Neptunian object, prototype of cubewanos
Trans-Neptunian object, prototype of cubewanos
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| minorplanet | yes |
| name | 15760 Albion |
| background | #C2E0FF |
| image | 1992 QB1 crop.jpg |
| caption | Long-exposure image of Albion (circled) taken by the European Southern Observatory in September 1992 |
| discovery_ref | |
| discoverer | D. C. Jewitt |
| J. X. Luu | |
| discovery_site | Mauna Kea Obs. |
| discovered | 30 August 1992 |
| mpc_name | (15760) Albion |
| alt_names | |
| pronounced | |
| named_after | Albion (mythology by William Blake) |
| mp_category | TNOcubewano (cold) |
| distant | |
| orbit_ref | |
| epoch | 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) |
| uncertainty | 3 |
| observation_arc | 26.34 yr (9,621 days) |
| aphelion | 47.042 AU |
| perihelion | 40.809 AU |
| semimajor | 43.925 AU |
| eccentricity | 0.07096 |
| period | 291.13 yr (106,334 days) |
| mean_anomaly | 34.041° |
| mean_motion | / day |
| inclination | 2.1797° |
| asc_node | 359.276° |
| arg_peri | 0.7765° |
| mean_diameter | 108 km |
| 167 km | |
| albedo | 0.2 (assumed) |
| spectral_type | RR (red) |
| B–V= | |
| V−R= | |
| V−I= | |
| magnitude | 23.3 |
| abs_magnitude | 7.1 |
J. X. Luu distant 167 km B–V= V−R= V−I=
15760 Albion (provisional designation ****) was the first trans-Neptunian object to be discovered after Pluto and Charon. Measuring about 108–167 kilometres in diameter, it was discovered in 1992 by David C. Jewitt and Jane X. Luu at the Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. After the discovery, they dubbed the object "Smiley" and it was shortly hailed as the tenth planet by the press. It is a "cold" classical Kuiper belt object and gave rise to the name cubewano for this kind of object, after the portion of its designation. Decoding its provisional designation, "QB1" reveals that it was the 27th object found in the second half of August of that year. As of January 2018, around 2,400 further objects have been found beyond Neptune, a majority of which are classical Kuiper belt objects. It was named after Albion from William Blake's mythology.
Naming
This minor planet was named after Albion from the complex mythology of English poet and painter William Blake (1757–1827). Albion is the island-dwelling primeval man whose division resulted into The Four Zoas: Urizen, Tharmas, Luvah/Orc and Urthona/Los. The name Albion itself derives from the ancient and mythological name of Britain. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 31 January 2018 (M.P.C. 108697).
The discoverers suggested the name "Smiley" for , but the name was already used for an asteroid 1613 Smiley, named after the American astronomer Charles Hugh Smiley. It has received the number 15760 and remained unnamed until January 2018 (it was normally referred to simply as "QB1", even though this was technically ambiguous without the year of discovery).
Legacy
The next year in 1993, objects in similar orbits were found including (15788) 1993 SB, (15789) 1993 SC, (181708) 1993 FW, and (385185) 1993 RO.
Over one thousand bodies were found in the Kuiper belt orbiting between about 30 and 50 AU from the Sun in the twenty years after finding 15760 Albion. This revealed a vast belt of bodies, more than just Pluto and Albion themselves. By 2018, over 2000 Kuiper belt objects were discovered.
Physical characteristics
Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, Albion measures approximately 167 kilometers (107 miles) in diameter, for an assumed albedo of 0.9 and a magnitude of 7.0. According to Mike Brown, who estimates a mean diameter of 108 km (66 mi), the object is too small for being considered a dwarf planet candidate ("probably not"). As of 2021, no rotational lightcurve for this body has been obtained from photometric observations. Its rotation period and pole, as well as its composition and shape remain unknown.
Notes
Minor planet and asteroid provisional designations follow a format, in which the year it was discovered comes first, followed by the half-month it was discovered alphabetically (e.g. A=January 1–15, B=January 16–31 and so on, but skipping the letters I and Z) and then the order of its discovery alphabetically followed by a number (e.g. 1992 QA, 1992 QB, 1992 QC ... 1992 QY, 1992 QZ, 1992 QA1, 1992 QB1 and so on.) According to this, Q=August 16–31 and B1=25+2=27.
References
References
- (2000-10-11). "The effect on the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt of a large distant tenth planet". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
- Coote, Roger. /. (August 2008). "The earth".
- Dr. David Jewitt. "Classical Kuiper Belt Objects". David Jewitt/UCLA.
- "(15760) Albion = 1992 QB1". [[IAU Minor Planet Center]].
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20011218053828/https://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast13sep_1.htm What Lurks in the Outer Solar System?] (Science@NASA, 13 September 2001)
- (2012-09-01). "The Kuiper Belt at 20".
- Dyches, Preston. "10 Things to Know About the Kuiper Belt".
- Mike Brown, [http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/dps.html 'How many dwarf planets are there in the outer solar system?'] {{webarchive. link. (October 18, 2011 Accessed 2014-11-19)
This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.
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