Discovery date May 2011 Aphelion 42.676 AU (6.3842 Tm) Eccentricity 0.13736 Discovered May 2011 Argument of perihelion 46.931° Absolute magnitude 8.8 | Alternative names VNH0004 Semi-major axis 37.522 AU (5.6132 Tm) Orbital period 229.84 yr (83949.94 d) Inclination 3.6328° Mean anomaly 347.91° | |
Similar Styx, Kerberos, Nix, Hydra | ||
2011 kw48 uetikon mepp ag
2011 KW48 (also labeled VNH0004) is a Kuiper belt object. In January 2015, the New Horizons probe traveled about 75 million km (47 million miles) (0.5 AU) from it, which is too far to take high-resolution photos of the object itself, but allowed the detection of possible satellites. If 2011 KW48 were 100 kilometers wide, it would appear approximately 0.11 arcseconds wide to New Horizons.
2011 KW48 was only observed 12 times by the Mauna Kea (8) and Las Campanas Observatory (4) over a period of about 33.8 days between May 29 and July 2, 2011, so its current orbit is extremely uncertain. Between January 4–15, 2015, New Horizons actively observed the object.
References
2011 KW48 Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA