| Quaoar
Large asteroids making the solar system look different: Quaoar and Ixion
2001 KX76 or Ixion The news from september 2001 read:
Asteroid found beyond Pluto
Astronomers reported on July 2 the discovery of perhaps the largest asteroid yet found in the solar system, a distant object beyond Pluto. Spotted in May by NASA's Deep Ecliptic Survey, the object called 2001 KX76 represents the brightest of so-called Kuiper Belt Objects, part of an icy stream of comets and planetoids circling the sun in Pluto's vicinity. Estimates suggest that 2001 KX76 has a diameter of 788 miles (1200-1400 km), more than 200 miles bigger than Ceres, the largest known asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. 2002 LM60 or Quaoar Quaoar, found more than a billion miles farther than Pluto's orbit. The transneptunian object's provisional designation is 2002 LM60. With an 800 mile (1300 km) diameter, it's the largest of ALL the asteroids. Quaoar, (pronounced kwa-whar and named after a creation force in California Indian mythology), is four billion miles from planet Earth and takes 288 years to orbit the sun. Quaoar is about one-tenth the diameter of Earth; in other words, half Pluto's size, though apparently larger than that planet's moon, Charon. The discovery image (will be added later!) was taken at 4 June 2002.
About 400 Kuiper Belt Objects, some a few hundred miles in diameter, have been discovered since 1992, with tens of thousands more believed to exist in the depths of the solar system.
| |