Discovered by LINEAR Aphelion 1,291.9 AU (193.27 Tm) Semi-major axis 647.32 AU (96.838 Tm) Inclination 57.852° Asteroid group Damocloid | Discovery date 2002-08-16 Perihelion 2.7095 AU (405.34 Gm) Discovered 16 August 2002 Absolute magnitude 15.3 | |
Minor planet category Jupiter crosser,Saturn crosser,Uranus crosser,Neptune crosser,Damocloid,Trans-Neptunian object Similar 2007 TG422, (148209) 2000 CR105, 2012 VP113 | ||
2002 RN109 is a minor planet with the second highest orbital eccentricity of any known minor planet, after 2005 VX3. It also has the seventh-largest heliocentric semi-major axis and aphelion of all known minor planets, while its extreme eccentricity brings it well within the orbit of Jupiter when at perihelion.
2002 RN109 has an observation arc 80 days and has not been observed since November 2002 about 2 months before it came to perihelion 2.7 AU from the Sun. During perihelion passage the object was 2.9 AU from Earth.
It may be a dormant comet that has not been seen outgassing. In the past it may have made closer approaches to the Sun that could have removed most near-surface volatiles.
References
2002 RN109 Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA