It has a highly eccentric orbit, crossing that of Neptune near perihelion but bringing it more than 1,500 AU from the Sun at aphelion.[4] It takes about 22,500 years to orbit the barycenter of the Solar System.[11] The large semi-major axis makes it similar to 2000 OO67 and Sedna.[11] With an absolute magnitude (H) of 8.1,[3] it is estimated to be about 60 to 140 km in diameter.[6]Michael Brown estimates that it has an albedo of 0.08 which would give a diameter of around 110 km.[7]
The object could possibly be a comet.[11] The discoverers hypothesize that the object could come from the Hills cloud,[11] but other scientists like California Institute of Technology's Michael Brown also consider other possibilities, including the theory "it may have formed from debris just beyond Neptune [in the Kuiper belt] and been 'kicked' into its distant orbit by a planet like Neptune or Uranus".[12]
Perturbation
The orbit of 2006 SQ372 currently comes closer to Neptune than any of the other giant planets.[1] More than half of the simulations of this object show that it gets too close to either Uranus or Neptune within the next 180 million years, sending it in a currently unknown direction.[13] This makes it difficult to classify this object as only a centaur or a scattered disc object. The Minor Planet Center, which officially catalogues all trans-Neptunian objects, lists centaurs and SDOs together.[2](29981) 1999 TD10 is another such object that blurs the two categories.[14]
period = 22,466 yr[11][a] (Heliocentric 32,347 yr)
Given the extreme orbital eccentricity of this object, different epochs can generate quite different heliocentric unperturbed two-bodybest-fit solutions to the aphelion distance (maximum distance) of this object.[b] With a 2005 epoch the object had an approximate period of about 22,000 years with aphelion at 1557 AU.[4] But using a 2011 epoch shows a period of about 32,000 years with aphelion at 2006 AU.[3] For objects at such high eccentricity, the Sun's barycentric coordinates are more stable than heliocentric coordinates.[11] Using JPL Horizons with an observed orbital arc of only 2.9 years, the barycentric orbital elements for epoch 2008-May-14 generate a semi-major axis of 796 AU and a period of 22,466 years.[11]
^ Read osculating orbit for more details about heliocentric unperturbed two-body solutions
References
^ a b c d"308933 (2006 SQ372)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^ a b c"List Of Centaurs and Scattered-Disk Objects". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^ a b c d e"JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 308933 (2006 SQ372)" (2015-07-25 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Archived from the original on 12 December 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^ a b cMarc W. Buie. "Orbit Fit and Astrometric record for 308933" (2010-09-17 using 64 of 65 observations over 5.01 years). SwRI (Space Science Department). Retrieved 5 September 2008.
^ a b c dJohnston, Wm. Robert (30 December 2017). "List of Known Trans-Neptunian Objects". Johnston's Archive. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^ a b"Asteroid Size Estimator". CNEOS NASA/JPL. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^ a b c dBrown, Michael E. "How many dwarf planets are there in the outer solar system?". California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^"MPEC 2007-A27 : 2006 SQ372". IAU Minor Planet Center. 8 January 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2011.
^Paul Gilster (18 August 2008). "An Icy Wanderer from the Oort Cloud". centauri-dreams.org. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
^"First object seen from solar system's inner Oort cloud". New Scientist. 18 August 2008. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 18 August 2008.
^ a b c d e f g hKaib, Nathan A.; Becker, Andrew C.; Jones, R. Lynne; Puckett, Andrew W.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Dilday, Benjamin; et al. (2009). "2006 SQ372: A Likely Long-Period Comet from the Inner Oort Cloud". The Astrophysical Journal. 695 (1): 268–275. arXiv:0901.1690. Bibcode:2009ApJ...695..268K. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/695/1/268. S2CID 16987581.
^"New "Minor Planet" Found in Solar System". National Geographic News. 19 August 2008. Archived from the original on 21 August 2008. Retrieved 18 August 2008.
^Dr Chris Lintott (25 August 2008). "Sky survey yields new cosmic haul". BBC. Archived from the original on 6 September 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2008.
^Kenneth Silber (11 November 1999). "New Object in Solar System Defies Categories". Space.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2005. Retrieved 7 September 2008.
^Horizons output (23 January 2011). "Barycentric Osculating Orbital Elements for 2006 SQ372". Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2011. (Horizons)
External links
"MPEC 2007-A27: 2006 SQ372". Minor Planet Electronic Circulars. 8 January 2007.