Discovered by Marc William Buie MPC designation (275809) 2001 QY297 Minor planet category TNO (cubewano) | Discovery date 21 August 2001 Alternative names 2001 QY297 | |
Aphelion 7012708794711376600♠47.380 AU | ||
(275809) 2001 QY297 is a binary classical Kuiper belt object belonging to the cold population.
Contents
Discovery and orbit
(275809) 2001 QY297 was discovered on 21 August 2001 by Marc William Buie from Cerro Tololo Observatory, La Serena, Chile. (275809) 2001 QY297 belongs to the dynamically cold population of the classical Kuiper belt objects, which have small orbital eccentricities and inclinations. Their semi-major axes reside mainly in the interval 40–45 AU.
Satellite
(275809) 2001 QY297 is a binary system consisting of two components of approximately equal size. The satellite was discovered on 18 April 2006. Assuming that both components have the same albedo, the primary is estimated to be about 169 km in diameter. The size of the secondary (satellite) in this case is estimated at around 154 km. The total mass of the system is approximately 4×1018 kg. The average density of both components is about 1 g/cm3.
Physical properties
The surfaces of both components of (275809) 2001 QY297 appear to have a red color. The object shows significant photometric variability with lightcurve amplitude of 0.49 ± 0.03. The rotational period is either 5.84 or 11.68 hours.