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60558 Echeclus

Centaur comet with 34 year orbit

Field	Value
minorplanet	yes
background	#C7FF8F
name	60558 Echeclus
174P/Echeclus
image	Echeclus SDSS 2001-04-16 annotated.png
caption	Echeclus (circled) photographed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at Apache Point Observatory on 16 April 2001
symbol	[[File:Echeclus symbol (bold).svg	24px]] (astrological)
discoverer	Spacewatch
discovered	3 March 2000
discovery_site	Kitt Peak Obs.
mpc_name	(60558) Echeclus
alt_names	,
pronounced
named_after	Ἔχεκλος Ekheklos
mp_category	centaur
orbit_ref
epoch	13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5)
uncertainty	0
semimajor	10.680 AU
perihelion	5.8168 AU
aphelion	15.544 AU
eccentricity	0.45537
period	34.90 yr (12749 d)
inclination	4.3445°
asc_node	173.335°
arg_peri	162.889°
mean_anomaly	7.51102°
avg_speed	8.58 km/s
p_mean_motion	0.0282
mean_motion	/ day
observation_arc	13264 days (36.31 yr)
jupiter_moid	0.838867 AU
tisserand	3.031
mean_diameter	{{cite web
date	22 August 2008
title	List of Known Trans-Neptunian Objects
publisher	Johnston's Archive
author	Wm. Robert Johnston
url	http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/tnoslist.html
access-date	2006-12-26	archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061216155220/http://johnstonsarchive.net/astro/tnoslist.html	archive-date= 16 December 2006	url-status= live}}
title	Physical Properties of Kuiper Belt and Centaur Objects: Constraints from Spitzer Space Telescope
author	John Stansberry
author2	Will Grundy
author3	Mike Brown
author4	Dale Cruikshank
author5	John Spencer
author6	David Trilling
author7	Jean-Luc Margot
eprint	astro-ph/0702538
date	2007
rotation	26.802 h
title	60558 Echeclus (2000 EC98)
id	2060558
accessdate	12 April 2016
spectral_type	B–V =
V–R =
magnitude	~18.8{{cite web
title	AstDys (60558) Echeclus Ephemerides
publisher	Department of Mathematics, University of Pisa, Italy
url	https://newton.spacedys.com/astdys/index.php?pc=1.1.3.0&n=60558
access-date	2010-06-28}}
abs_magnitude	9.6
albedo	0.04
single_temperature	~85 K

174P/Echeclus |access-date=2006-12-26| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061216155220/http://johnstonsarchive.net/astro/tnoslist.html| archive-date= 16 December 2006 | url-status= live}} V–R = |access-date=2010-06-28}}

60558 Echeclus is a centaur, approximately 60 km in diameter, https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/527/2/3624/7332922 located in the outer Solar System. It was discovered by Spacewatch in 2000 and initially classified as a minor planet with provisional designation . Research in 2001 by Rousselot and Petit at the Besançon observatory in France indicated that it was not a comet, but in December 2005 a cometary coma was detected. In early 2006 the Committee on Small Bodies Nomenclature (CSBN) gave it the cometary designation 174P/Echeclus. It last came to perihelion in April 2015, and was expected to reach about apparent magnitude 16.7 near opposition in September 2015.

Name

Echeclus is a centaur in Greek mythology.

Echeclus is only the second comet (after Chiron) that was named as a minor planet, rather than after the name of its discoverer. Chiron is also a centaur; other centaurs are being observed for signs of a cometary coma.

Besides Echeclus, eight other objects are cross-listed as both comets and numbered minor planets: 2060 Chiron (95P/Chiron), 4015 Wilson–Harrington (107P/Wilson–Harrington), 7968 Elst–Pizarro (133P/Elst–Pizarro), 118401 LINEAR (176P/LINEAR), (282P/2003 BM80), (288P/2006 VW139), (362P/2008 GO98), and (433P/2005 QN173).

Activity

Fragmentation

On 30 December 2005, when 13.1 AU from the Sun, a large chunk of Echeclus was observed to break off, causing a great cloud of dust. Astronomers have speculated this could have been caused by an impact or by an explosive release of volatile substances.

Outbursts

Echeclus appears to have outburst again around June 2011 when it was 8.5 AU from the Sun. On 24 June 2011, follow up imaging with the 2 meter Haleakala-Faulkes Telescope South showed the coma of Echeclus to be very close to the sky background limit.

Echeclus outburst again around 7 December 2017 when it was 7.3 AU from the Sun, and was 4 magnitudes brighter than expected.

Presence of gas

In 2016, carbon monoxide was detected in Echeclus in very small amounts, and the derived CO production rate was calculated to be sufficient to account for the observed coma. The calculated CO production rate from Echeclus is substantially lower than what is typically observed for 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann, another distantly active comet often classified as a centaur.{{cite journal |doi-access= free

Orbit

Echeclus came to perihelion in April 2015.

Centaurs have short dynamical lives due to strong interactions with the giant planets. Echeclus is estimated to have an orbital half-life of about 610,000 years.{{cite journal |doi-access= free

References

|access-date=2014-10-31}} (0174P)

|name-list-style=amp |access-date=2011-06-01}}

|name-list-style=amp |access-date=2011-06-09}}

|name-list-style=amp |access-date=2011-06-24}}

|access-date= 26 September 2019}}

References

"Homepage of the VdS-Fachgruppe Kometen".
[http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/lists/DualStatus.html Dual-Status Objects]
[https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/2021/MPC_20210920.pdf M.P.C. 133823]
Hecht, Jeff. (11 April 2006). "Hybrid comet-asteroid in mysterious break-up". NewScientist.com news service.
[https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/mpml/conversations/messages/33519 33519 174P/Echeclus outburst (Brian Skiff)]{{dead link. (December 2023)

Info: Wikipedia Source

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.

centaurs-(small-solar-system-bodies) periodic-comets numbered-comets discoveries-by-the-spacewatch-project named-minor-planets astronomical-objects-discovered-in-2000 chiron-type-comets

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