|
REPORT COPYRIGHT VIOLATION IN REPLY
|
|
Message Subject
|
Thunderbird energy - final phase intergration - cygnus/arcturus/aquila/sirius/whirlpool galaxy M51
|
|
Poster Handle
|
Anonymous Coward |
|
Post Content
|
2060 Chiron it was the first-known member of a new class of objects now known as centaurs, with an orbit between Saturn and Uranus.
Although it was initially called an asteroid and classified as a minor planet, it was later found to exhibit behavior typical of a comet. Today it is classified as both, and accordingly it is also known by the cometary designation 95P/Chiron.
Mike Brown lists it as a possible dwarf planet with a measured diameter of 233 km.[8]
Chiron was discovered on 18 October 1977 by Charles Kowal from images taken two weeks earlier at Palomar Observatory.[9] It was given the temporary designation of 1977 UB.[10]
It was found near aphelion[9] and at the time of discovery it was the most distant known minor planet.[10] Chiron was even claimed as the tenth planet by the press.[11]
It had been at perihelion in 1945 but was not discovered then because there were few searches being made at that time, and these were not sensitive to slow-moving objects
It was named 2060 Chiron in 1979[10] after Chiron, one of the centaurs; it was suggested that the names of other centaurs be reserved for objects of the same type.
Chiron's orbit was found to be highly eccentric (0.37), with perihelion just inside the orbit of Saturn and aphelion just outside the perihelion of Uranus
In February 1988, at 12 AU from the Sun, Chiron brightened by 75 percent.[13] This is behavior typical of comets but not asteroids. Further observations in April 1989 showed that Chiron had developed a cometary coma,[13] and a tail was detected in 1993.[10] Chiron differs from other comets in that water is not a major component of its coma, because it is too far from the Sun for water to sublimate.[12] [ link to en.wikipedia.org]
|
|
|
Please verify you're human:
|
|
|
Reason for copyright violation:
|
