420356 Praamzius
Discovery [1] | |
---|---|
Discovered by | K. Černis R. P. Boyle |
Discovery site | Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (Mount Graham Obs.) |
Discovery date | 23 January 2012 |
Designations | |
(420356) Praamzius | |
Named after | Praamžius (Lithuanian mythology)[2] |
2012 BX85 | |
TNO [1] · distant [2] (near-3:5 resonance) | |
Orbital characteristics [1] | |
Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
Uncertainty parameter 3 | |
Observation arc | 13.08 yr (4,778 days) |
Aphelion | 43.030 AU |
Perihelion | 42.529 AU |
42.779 AU | |
Eccentricity | 0.0059 |
279.81 yr (102,200 days) | |
188.89° | |
0° 0m 12.6s / day | |
Inclination | 1.0952° |
314.25° | |
352.52° | |
Physical characteristics | |
Dimensions | 202 km[3] |
21.89–22.13 | |
5.7[1] | |
420356 Praamzius, provisional designation 2012 BX85, is a trans-Neptunian object and possibly a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, approximately 200 kilometers in diameter.[1][3] It was discovered on 23 January 2012, by astronomers Kazimieras Černis and Richard Boyle with the Vatican's VATT at Mount Graham Observatory in Arizona, United States. The object was named after the chief god Praamžius from Lithuanian mythology.[2]
Orbit
Praamzius has the second-lowest eccentricity of any trans-Neptunian object (TNO), after 2003 YN179. Praamzius orbits near the 3:5 resonance with Neptune, but not exactly on it, with both its period and orbital radius being slightly too large to fit an exact 3:5 ratio.[citation needed] This could be due to their apparent relationship being merely coincidental, and Praamzius actually being a typical non-resonant cubewano, an artefact of an orbit actually at the extreme end of a librating cycle centred on 3:5 (and oscillating between other seemingly non-resonant values either side of it), or due to it exhibiting some more exotic resonance such as 10:17 or 13:22 which are better fits for the observations obtained so far.
However, it is difficult at this point to determine which of those possibilities is the truth, as although a relatively large number of observations of Praamzius have been obtained considering its size and position, the data is still not rich or accurate enough to pin it down; it rates an Uncertainty Parameter of U = 3, or about 0.327 to 1.400 arc-minutes of possible drift per decade, and over several of its approximately 28-decade orbits (9.15 to 39.20 arcmin uncertainty per orbit) this uncertainty provides a sufficiently large error range that all of the above scenarios are entirely possible.
Discovery
This TNO was discovered on 23 January 2012, with precovery observations accepted by the Minor Planet Center dating back to December 2011, with possible precovery observations dating back to 2004, that have yet to be accepted.[2]
Praamzius is one of the most recently discovered minor planets that have been given a numeric designation, most likely because of the large number of observations, on average about one every 10 days, since it was discovered. Most observations were made by the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on Mount Graham, Arizona, the discovery site.[2]
Physical characteristics
Analysis of precovery observations of Praamzius from 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2007, show that it is probably one of the reddest objects in the Solar System, being more than 1.5 magnitudes fainter measured in the G (green) filter than the R (red) filter.[citation needed]
Naming
This minor planet was named after Praamžius (an epithet of Dievas), the Lithuanian god of the sky, peace, and friendship.[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 22 February 2016 (M.P.C. 98717).[4]
References
- ^ a b c d e "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 420356 Praamzius (2012 BX85)" (2016-01-30 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f "420356 Praamzius (2012 BX85)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^ a b Brown, Mike. "How many dwarf planets are there in the Solar System". Retrieved 2 February 2015.
- ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
External links