Discovered by Mauna Kea Observatory Observation arc 3363 days (9.21 yr) | Discovery date July 18, 1999 | |
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Aphelion 38.8091477 AU (5.80576586 Tm) Perihelion 36.9475497 AU (5.52727476 Tm) Semi-major axis 37.8783487 AU (5.66652031 Tm) | ||
1999 OJ4 is a fairly small cubewano that orbits in a nearly circular orbit. It is orbited by S/2005 (1999 OJ4) 1, a moon just 3 kilometres smaller than 1999 OJ4 itself.
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Orbit and Relationship with the Kuiper Belt
1999 OJ4 orbit characterizes it as a classical Kuiper Belt object, or cubewano. Due to its nearly circular orbit and low inclination, it is also in the "cold" population of cubewanos. As a result, it is likely reddish in color.
Moon
1999 OJ4 has one moon, S/2005 (1999 OJ4) 1. This moon was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope on October 5, 2013. It orbits 3,267 kilometres away from 1999 OJ4, completing one orbit every 84.115 days. At 72 km, it is nearly the same size as 1999 OJ4. From the surface of 1999 OJ4, S/2005 (1999 OJ4) 1 would have an apparent diameter of roughly 8.11°, over fourteen times the apparent size of the Sun from Earth.