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The discovery was made in 1993 at the La Palma Observatory with the Isaac Newton Telescope. Very little is known about the object. Even the diameter estimate of ~130 km is based on an assumed albedo of 0.09. [5] Other Kuiper belt objects discovered in 1993 include: (15788) 1993 SB, (15789) 1993 SC, (181708) 1993 FW, and (385185) 1993 RO.
In 1992, minor planet (15760) Albion was discovered, the first Kuiper belt object (KBO) since Pluto (in 1930) and Charon (in 1978). [16] Since its discovery, the number of known KBOs has increased to thousands, and more than 100,000 KBOs over 100 km (62 mi) in diameter are thought to exist. [ 17 ]
Gerard Peter Kuiper (/ ˈ k aɪ p ər / KY-pər; born Gerrit Pieter Kuiper, Dutch: [ˈɣɛrɪt ˈpitər ˈkœypər]; 7 December 1905 – 23 December 1973) was a Dutch-American astronomer, planetary scientist, selenographer, author and professor. The Kuiper belt is named after him. Kuiper is considered by many to be the father of modern ...
1951 – Gerard Kuiper argues for an annular reservoir of comets between 40 and 100 astronomical units from the Sun having formed early in the Solar System's evolution, but he did not think that such a belt still existed today. [176] Decades later, this region was named after him, the Kuiper belt.
Dwarf planets: Dwarf planets, other than Ceres, are plutoids that have elliptical orbits: [25] [26] [27] Ceres, 2.8 AU in the asteroid belt; Orcus 39.4 AU, Trans-Neptunian-Kuiper belt object; Pluto 39 AU, Kuiper belt (a planet until 2006) Haumea 43 AU, Kuiper belt; Makemake 45.8 AU, Kuiper belt; Eris 95.6 AU, Kuiper belt; Gonggong Scattered ...
Other objects, such as 28978 Ixion (discovered in 2001) and 20000 Varuna (discovered in 2000) measure roughly 500 km across. [1] This has led gradually to the acceptance of Pluto as the largest member of the Kuiper belt. [citation needed] The brightest known dwarf planets and other KBOs (with absolute magnitudes < 4.0) are:
Before 486958 Arrokoth was discovered in 2014, Arawn was the best known target for a flyby by the New Horizons spacecraft after its Pluto flyby in 2015. [15] [16] Arawn was one of the first objects targeted for distant observations by New Horizons, which were taken on 2 November 2015. [17] More observations were made in April 2016. [7]
(307261) 2002 MS 4 (provisional designation 2002 MS 4) is a large trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper belt, which is a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune.It was discovered on 18 June 2002 by Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown during their search for bright, Pluto-sized Kuiper belt objects at Palomar Observatory.