Discovery date October 14, 2007 Minor planet category Plutino Perihelion 28.840 AU | MPC designation 341520 Mors–Somnus Aphelion 49.400 AU | |
Discovered by Scott S. Sheppard and C. Trujillo | ||
341520 Mors–Somnus also known as 2007 TY430 is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) that resides in the Kuiper belt and was discovered on October 14, 2007 by Scott S. Sheppard and C. Trujillo with Subaru telescope at Mauna Kea. It is classified as a plutino, which means that it is in the 3:2 mean motion resonance with Neptune.
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Naming
341520 Mors–Somnus was named on June 2, 2015 after the mythological Roman gods of death (Mors) and sleep (Somnus).
Orbit and binarity
341520 Mors–Somnus is a small double plutino occupying the 3:2 mean motion resonance with Neptune. The object is a wide optically resolved binary with the following orbital parameters
The components has almost equal size. The total mass of the system is 7.90 ± 0.21×1017 kg. For a realistic minimal density of 0.5 g/cm3 the albedo is >0.17 and the size of the components is <60 km.
Physical properties
341520 Mors–Somnus has an ultra-red spectrum in the visible and near-infrared parts of the spectrum. The colors of two components are indistinguishable from each other.
341520 Mors–Somnus demonstrates a double-peaked light curve with the period of about 9.28 hours and amplitude of 0.24. This indicates that either primary of secondary has an elongated shape and rotates non-synchronosly.
Evolution
341520 Mors–Somnus system is likely to be an escaped cold classical Kuiper Belt object.