Quaoar
New planet discovered beyond Pluto
Quaoar
is the largest new object
in the solarsystem since Pluto in 1930
Quaoar is half the size of Pluto,
orbiting more than 8.000.000.000 km from the sun.
Discovered June 4, 2002 by Brown and Truillo,
who chosed the name "Quaoar" from the creation-myth
of the Tongva-tribe, original inhabitants of the Los Angeles-area.
The object has now been officially named Quaoar,
(systematic name: 2002 LM60).
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Trujillo:
"We found the object was about 1,200 km [745 miles] in diameter.
Just to be sure, and to see if it has any satellites around it,
we imaged it with the Hubble Space Telescope and
found it to be 1,250 km [777 miles] in diameter.
As for an atmosphere, it's unlikely to have much of one.
Even Pluto, which is eight times more massive - twice as large in diameter -
only has a tenuous atmosphere, about a million times less pressure than the Earth's."
Quaoar data
Distance: 8.3 mia km from the sun. (5 lighthours). 8.13 X 109 km.
Diameter: 1.250 kilometer.
Rotation: 285 years.
Surface reflects 10% light.
Probably composed of icy rocks.
No satellites were found.
"Quaoar" is pronounced kwah-o-whar;
Systematic name: 2002 LM60
Frequently asked questions...
Kuiper belt
The second asteroid-belt. 50,000 objects greater than 100 km (62 miles)
in diameter are thought to exist in the kuiper belt, who was theorized
for decades before its first objects were identified ten years ago.
Read more...