2012 VP113
Discovery[1][2] | |
---|---|
Discovered by | |
Discovery site | Cerro Tololo Obs. |
Discovery date | 5 November 2012 (announced: 26 March 2014) |
Designations | |
2012 VP113 | |
"Biden" (nickname) | |
Orbital characteristics[3] | |
Epoch 2022 Aug 09 (JD 2459800.5) | |
Uncertainty parameter 4 | |
Observation arc | 8.29 yr (3,028 d) |
Aphelion | 462±1 AU |
Perihelion |
|
271.5±0.6 AU | |
Eccentricity | 0.7036±0.0007 |
| |
3.50°±0.01° | |
0° 0m 0.792s / day | |
Inclination | 24.0563°±0.006° |
90.787° | |
≈ 28 September 1979[5] | |
293.8° | |
Physical characteristics | |
574 km?[7] 300–1000 km[8] | |
| |
23.34[11] | |
4.1[3] | |
2012 VP113, also known by its nickname "Biden", is a trans-Neptunian object of the sednoid population, located in the outermost reaches of the Solar System. It was first observed on 5 November 2012 by American astronomers Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.[1][2] The discovery was announced on 26 March 2014.[10][12] The object probably measures somewhere between 300 and 1000 km in diameter, possibly large enough to be a dwarf planet.
Classification and physical characteristics
[edit]2012 VP113 is the minor planet with the farthest known perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) in the Solar System, greater than Sedna's.[13] Though its perihelion is farther, 2012 VP113 has an aphelion only about half of Sedna's. It is the second discovered sednoid, with semi-major axis beyond 150 AU and perihelion greater than 50 AU. The similarity of the orbit of 2012 VP113 to other known extreme trans-Neptunian objects led Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo to suggest that an undiscovered object, Planet Nine, in the outer Solar System is shepherding these distant objects into similar type orbits.[10]
It has an absolute magnitude of 4.0,[1] which means it may be large enough to be a dwarf planet.[14] It is expected to be about half the size of Sedna and similar in size to Huya.[8] Its surface is moderately red in color, resulting from chemical changes produced by the effect of radiation on frozen water, methane, and carbon dioxide. [15] This optical color is consistent with formation in the gas-giant region and not the classical Kuiper belt, which is dominated by ultra-red colored objects.[10]
History
[edit]Discovery
[edit]2012 VP113 was first observed on 5 November 2012[2] with NOAO's 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.[16] Carnegie's 6.5-meter Magellan telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile was used to determine its orbit and surface properties.[16] Before being announced to the public, it was only tracked by Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (807) and Las Campanas Observatory (304).[1] Two precovery measurements from 22 October 2011 have been reported.[1] A primary issue with observing it and finding precovery observations of it is that at an apparent magnitude of 23, it is too faint for most telescopes to easily observe.
Nickname
[edit]2012 VP113 was abbreviated "VP" and nicknamed "Biden" by the discovery team, after Joe Biden who was the vice president ("VP") of the United States in 2012.[12]
Orbit
[edit]2012 VP113 has the largest perihelion distance of any known object in the Solar System.[17] Its last perihelion was within a couple months of September 1979.[5] The paucity of bodies with perihelia at 50–75 AU appears not to be an observational artifact.[10]
It is possibly a member of a hypothesized Hills cloud.[8][16][18] It has a perihelion, argument of perihelion, and current position in the sky similar to those of Sedna.[8] In fact, all known Solar System bodies with semi-major axes over 150 AU and perihelia greater than Neptune's have arguments of perihelion clustered near 340°±55°.[10] This could indicate a similar formation mechanism for these bodies.[10] (148209) 2000 CR105 was the first such object discovered.
It is currently unknown how 2012 VP113 acquired a perihelion distance beyond the Kuiper belt. The characteristics of its orbit, like those of Sedna's, have been explained as possibly created by a passing star or a trans-Neptunian planet of several Earth masses hundreds of astronomical units from the Sun.[19] The orbital architecture of the trans-Plutonian region may signal the presence of more than one planet.[20][21] 2012 VP113 could even be captured from another planetary system.[14] However, it is considered more likely that the perihelion of 2012 VP113 was raised by multiple interactions within the crowded confines of the open star cluster in which the Sun formed.[8]
-
Simulated view showing the orbit of 2012 VP113
-
2012 VP113 orbit in white with hypothetical Planet Nine
-
The orbits of known distant objects with large aphelion distances over 200 AU
See also
[edit]- List of Solar System objects most distant from the Sun
- 90377 Sedna (relatively large and also distant body)
- 541132 Leleākūhonua (distant sednoid)
- List of hyperbolic comets
- List of possible dwarf planets
- Other large aphelion objects
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "2012 VP113". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ a b c "MPEC 2014-F40 : 2012 VP113". IAU Minor Planet Center. 26 March 2014. (K12VB3P)
- ^ a b c "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: (2012 VP113)" (3 December 2021 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
- ^ a b Johnston, Wm. Robert (7 October 2018). "List of Known Trans-Neptunian Objects". Johnston's Archive. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ a b c "Horizons Batch for 2012 VP113 on 1979-Sep-28" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Retrieved 21 June 2022. (JPL#9, Soln.date: 3 December 2021)
- ^ Horizons output. "Barycentric Osculating Orbital Elements for 2012 VP113". Retrieved 21 June 2022. (Ephemeris Type:Elements and Center:@0)
- ^ "List of known trans-Neptunian objects".
- ^ a b c d e Lakdawalla, Emily (26 March 2014). "A second Sedna! What does it mean?". Planetary Society blogs. The Planetary Society.
- ^ Brown, Michael E. "How many dwarf planets are there in the outer solar system?". California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Trujillo, C. A.; Sheppard, S. S. (2014). "A Sedna-like body with a perihelion of 80 astronomical units" (PDF). Nature. 507 (7493): 471–474. Bibcode:2014Natur.507..471T. doi:10.1038/nature13156. PMID 24670765. S2CID 4393431. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
- ^ "2012 VP113 – Summary". AstDyS-2, Asteroids – Dynamic Site. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
- ^ a b Witze, Alexandra (26 March 2014). "Dwarf planet stretches Solar System's edge". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2014.14921. S2CID 124305879.
- ^ Chang, Kenneth (26 March 2014). "A New Planetoid Reported in Far Reaches of Solar System". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Sheppard, Scott S. "Beyond the Edge of the Solar System: The Inner Oort Cloud Population". Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- ^ Sample, Ian (26 March 2014). "Dwarf planet discovery hints at a hidden Super Earth in solar system". The Guardian.
- ^ a b c "NASA Supported Research Helps Redefine Solar System's Edge". NASA. 26 March 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
- ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Search Engine: q > 47 (AU)". JPL Solar System Dynamics. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
- ^ Wall, Mike (26 March 2014). "New Dwarf Planet Found at Solar System's Edge, Hints at Possible Faraway 'Planet X'". Space.com web site. TechMediaNetwork. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- ^ "A new object at the edge of our Solar System discovered". Physorg.com. 26 March 2014.
- ^ de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl (1 September 2014). "Extreme trans-Neptunian objects and the Kozai mechanism: signalling the presence of trans-Plutonian planets". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. 443 (1): L59–L63. arXiv:1406.0715. Bibcode:2014MNRAS.443L..59D. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slu084.
- ^ de la Fuente Marcos, Carlos; de la Fuente Marcos, Raúl; Aarseth, S. J. (11 January 2015). "Flipping minor bodies: what comet 96P/Machholz 1 can tell us about the orbital evolution of extreme trans-Neptunian objects and the production of near-Earth objects on retrograde orbits". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 446 (2): 1867–1873. arXiv:1410.6307. Bibcode:2015MNRAS.446.1867D. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu2230.
External links
[edit]- 2012 VP113 Inner Oort Cloud Object Discovery Images from Scott S. Sheppard/Carnegie Institution for Science.
- 2012 VP113 has Q=460 ± 30 Archived 28 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine (mpml: CFHT 2011-Oct-22 precovery)
- List of Known Trans-Neptunian Objects, Johnston's Archive
- List Of Centaurs and Scattered-Disk Objects, Minor Planet Center
- 2012 VP113 at the JPL Small-Body Database