(300163) 2006 VW139: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 17:16, 24 September 2017
 Time-lapse video of (300163) 2006 VW139 | |
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Spacewatch |
| Discovery date | 15 November 2006 |
| Designations | |
| (300163) 2006 VW139 | |
| Orbital characteristics[2] | |
| Epoch 18 April 2013 (JD 2457800.5) | |
| Aphelion | 3.66075114 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.4340321 AU |
| 3.04739164 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.2012736 |
| 5.32 yr (1943.08 days) | |
| 118.81838° | |
| Inclination | 3.24071° |
| 83.1908° | |
| 281.3476° | |
| Known satellites | 1 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 15.929 ± 0.71925 | |
(300163) 2006 VW139 is an unusual object in the Asteroid belt. Hubble was used to image the asteroid in September 2016, just before the asteroid made its closest approach to the Sun and revealed it includes two asteroids with comet-like features orbiting each other.[3] Two asteroids of almost the same mass and size, orbiting each other at a distance of 60 miles.[3]
Discovery
Asteroid 300163 (2006 VW139) was discovered by Spacewatch in November 2006 and then the possible cometary activity was seen in November 2011 by Pan-STARRS. Both Spacewatch and Pan-STARRS are asteroid survey projects of NASA's Near Earth Object Observations Program. After the Pan-STARRS observations it was also given a comet designation of 288P. This makes the object the first known binary asteroid that is also classified as a main-belt comet.[3]
Cometary Activities
Observations of Hubble Space Telescope revealed ongoing activity in this binary system. The combined features of the binary asteroid wide separation, near-equal component size, high eccentricity orbit, and comet-like activity also make it unique among the few known binary asteroids that have a wide separation.
References
- ^ Hsieh, Henry H; Yang, Bin; Haghighipour, Nader; Kaluna, Heather M; Fitzsimmons, Alan; Denneau, Larry; Novaković, Bojan; Jedicke, Robert; Wainscoat, Richard J; Armstrong, James D; Duddy, Samuel R; Lowry, Stephen C; Trujillo, Chadwick A; Micheli, Marco; Keane, Jacqueline V; Urban, Laurie; Riesen, Timm; Meech, Karen J; Abe, Shinsuke; Cheng, Yu-Chi; Chen, Wen-Ping; Granvik, Mikael; Grav, Tommy; Ip, Wing-Huen; Kinoshita, Daisuke; Kleyna, Jan; Lacerda, Pedro; Lister, Tim; Milani, Andrea; et al. (2012). "Discovery of Main-belt Comet P/2006 VW139 by Pan-STARRS1". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 748: L15. arXiv:1202.2126. Bibcode:2012ApJ...748L..15H. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/748/1/L15.
- ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser". Retrieved 21 September 2017.
- ^ a b c "Comet or Asteroid? Hubble Discovers that a Unique Object is a Binary". Retrieved 21 September 2017.
Further reading
- Agarwal, Jessica; Jewitt, David; Mutchler, Max; Weaver, Harold; Larson, Stephen (2017). "A binary main-belt comet". Nature. 549 (7672): 357. doi:10.1038/nature23892.