What is Quaoar?
Quaoar is a planetoid that lies beyond Pluto's orbit in the solar system. Its discovery in 2002, as well as subsequent discoveries of other small worlds, led to a new classification and the redefinition of Pluto as a "dwarf planet."
Is Quaoar a dwarf planet?
Artist’s impression of the moderately red Quaoar and its moon Weywot. According to the IAU, a dwarf planet is any celestial body that orbits a star, is massive enough to have become spherical under the power of its own gravity, but has not cleared its path of planetesimals, and is not the satellite of another object.
What is the mass of Quaoar?
Because Quaoar is a binary object, the mass of the system can be calculated from the orbit of the secondary. From this, Quaoar’s estimated density of 2.2 g/cm³ and its estimated diameter of 820 – 960 km suggest that it is large enough to be a dwarf planet.
When was the planet Quaoar discovered?
The discovery of Quaoar was formally announced by the Minor Planet Center in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular on 7 October 2002. It was given the provisional designation 2002 LM60, indicating that its discovery took place during the first half of June 2002.
Why is Quaoar not a planet?
Because Quaoar is a binary object, the mass of the system can be calculated from the orbit of the secondary. From this, Quaoar's estimated density of 2.2 g/cm³ and its estimated diameter of 820 – 960 km suggest that it is large enough to be a dwarf planet.
Is Quaoar an official dwarf planet?
Its discovery in 2002, as well as subsequent discoveries of other small worlds, led to a new classification and the redefinition of Pluto as a "dwarf planet." Quaoar is probably massive enough to be considered a dwarf planet, but it has not been classified as such yet.
Is Quaoar bigger than Pluto?
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has measured Quaoar and found it to be 1300 km wide. That's about 400 km wider than the biggest main-belt asteroid (Ceres) and more than half the diameter of Pluto itself. Indeed, it's the largest object in the solar system seen since the discovery of Pluto 72 years ago.
Is Quaoar a plutino?
Makemake, Quaoar, Varuna and Chaos are considered Cubewanos. Currently, the formal definition is under assessment....Cubewanos.Plutino(84922) 2003 VS2Diameter (miles)326 - 575Orbit Period (years)c. 246Orbit Size (billion km)5.45 - 6.30Orbit Size (billion miles)3.39 - 4.293 more columns
Does Quaoar orbit the Sun?
286 years50000 Quaoar / Orbital period
Has Voyager reached the Oort Cloud?
No missions have been sent to explore the Oort Cloud yet, but five spacecraft will eventually get there. They are Voyager 1 and 2, New Horizons, and Pioneer 10 and 11. The Oort Cloud is so distant, however, that the power sources for all five spacecraft will be dead centuries before they reach its inner edge.
Does Quaoar have a moon?
Weywot50000 Quaoar / MoonQuaoar has one known moon, Weywot (full designation (50000) Quaoar I Weywot), discovered in 2006. It is thought to be somewhere around 170 km (110 mi) in diameter.
Does Sedna have a moon?
Because Sedna has no known moons, determining its mass is currently impossible without sending a space probe. Sedna is currently the largest trans-Neptunian Sun-orbiting object not known to have a satellite.
What planet is Uranus?
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, and has the third-largest diameter in our solar system. It was the first planet found with the aid of a telescope, Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought it was either a comet or a star.
How many plutinos are there?
Pluto's eccentricity and inclination were pumped up along with the eccentricities and inclinations of the 25,000 other Plutinos (diameters > 100 km), probably driven by the radial migration of Neptune.
What are the Plutoids?
Plutoids are dwarf planets that are farther from the Sun than Neptune; that is, they are the largest objects in the Kuiper belt. Two of the dwarf planets, Pluto and Eris, are plutoids; Ceres, because of its location in…
How big is Quaoar?
344.86 mi50000 Quaoar / Radius
What type of KBO is Quaoar?
Quaoar has an orbital period of 284.5 years, and a sidereal rotation period of about 17.68 hours. Its orbit is also nearly circular and moderately inclined at approximately 8°, which is typical for the population of small classical KBOs, but exceptional among the large KBO.
What is Quaoar moon?
Weywot50000 Quaoar / MoonWeywot, officially Quaoar I Weywot, is the only known moon of the trans-Neptunian planetoid 50000 Quaoar. Discovered by Michael Brown and T.A. Suer using images acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope on 14 February 2006, its existence was announced in an IAU Circular notice published on 22 February 2007. Wikipedia
What is considered a dwarf planet?
According to the International Astronomical Union, which sets definitions for planetary science, a dwarf planet is a celestial body that -orbits the sun, has enough mass to assume a nearly round shape, has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit and is not a moon.
How many dwarf planets are there?
Currently, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially classifies five celestial bodies in our solar system as dwarf planets: Pluto, Eris, Ceres, Makemake, and Haumea.
What is the planet beyond Pluto?
Quaoar: Planetoid Beyond Pluto. An artist's conception of Quaoar and its small moon Weywot. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech)) Quaoar is a planetoid that lies beyond Pluto's orbit in the solar system. Its discovery in 2002, as well as subsequent discoveries of other small worlds, led to a new classification and ...
What were the dwarf worlds discovered in the 2000s?
Brown also led the teams that discovered several other dwarf worlds in the 2000s, such as Haumea, Eris and Sedna . These small worlds made astronomers realize that bigger objects lurked beyond Pluto than previously believed. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union met to determine how to define a planet, since some were wondering what to call these large new objects.
What is the planet number of Quaoar?
Quaoar was given the minor planet number 50000, which was not by coincidence but to commemorate its large size, being that it was found in the search for a Pluto-sized object in the Kuiper belt. The large Kuiper belt object 20000 Varuna has been similarly numbered for a similar occasion.
How big is the quaoar?
Measurements from the Herschel Space Observatory in 2013 suggested that Quaoar has a diameter of 1,070 km (660 mi). In that same year, Quaoar occulted a 15.8 magnitude star, yielding a chord length of 1100 ± 5 km, consistent with the Herschel estimate.
What is the name of the planet in the Kuiper belt?
50000 Quaoar, provisional designation 2002 LM60, is a non-resonant trans-Neptunian object ( cubewano) and a possible dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. It measures approximately 1,121 km (697 mi) in diameter, about half the diameter of Pluto. The object was discovered by American astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the Palomar Observatory on 4 June 2002. Signs of water ice on the surface of Quaoar have been found, which suggests that cryovolcanism may be occurring on Quaoar. A small amount of methane is present on its surface, which can only be retained by the largest Kuiper belt objects. In February 2007, Weywot, a synchronous moon in orbit around Quaoar, was discovered by Brown. Weywot is measured to be 170 km (110 mi) across. Both objects were named after mythological figures from the Native American Tongva people in Southern California. Quaoar is the Tongva creator deity and Weywot is his son.
What is the name of the moon in the constellation of Quaoar?
In February 2007, Weywot, a synchronous moon in orbit around Quaoar, was discovered by Brown. Weywot is measured to be 170 km (110 mi) across. Both objects were named after mythological figures from the Native American Tongva people in Southern California. Quaoar is the Tongva creator deity and Weywot is his son.
What temperature did Quaoar get?
Speculation began as to what could have caused Quaoar to heat up from its natural temperature of 55 K (−218.2 °C).
What does the albedo of Quaoar mean?
Quaoar's albedo or reflectivity could be as low as 0.1, similar to Varuna 's albedo of 0.127. This may indicate that fresh ice has disappeared from Quaoar's surface. The surface is moderately red, meaning that Quaoar is relatively more reflective in the red and near-infrared spectrum than in the blue.
How many syllables are there in Quaoar?
According to Brown, the name "Quaoar" is pronounced with three syllables, and Trujillo's website on Quaoar gives a three -syllable pronunciation, / ˈkwɑː.oʊ ( w) ɑːr /, as an approximation of the Tongva pronunciation [ˈkʷaʔuwar].
How big is the Kuiper Belt?
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft observations of Kuiper Belt object Quaoar ("Kwa-war"), which - at 690 miles or 1,100 kilometers in diameter - is roughly half the size of Pluto.
What is the moon with the cratered terrain?
A thin crescent of cratered terrain is illuminated on Saturn's fourth largest moon, Dione. Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing side of Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across). Nort... Crescent Dione. This set of images exposes details on small and crumpled-looking Helene.
What is the name of the crater that has a sharp rim?
Severina crater has a fresh, sharp rim and a smaller, presumably younger, crater on its... Severina Crater. The complete remote sensing pallet is lowered by technicians from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology and mated at the interface with the Cassini spacecraf...
Which moon is closest to Cassini?
Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles across) is closest to the Cassini spacecraft here. Epimetheus (113 kilometers, or 70 miles... On Sept. 10, the Cassini spacecraft performs its closest flyby during the entire mission of the odd moon Iapetus, passing by about 1,640 kilometers (1,000 miles).
Is Saturn's atmosphere transparent?
Saturn's atmosphere is essentially transparent at wavelengths visible to the human eye, but when the view through the atmosphere is oblique, as it is along the planet's limb (edge), it will distort... Funhouse Atmosphere. A thin crescent of cratered terrain is illuminated on Saturn's fourth largest moon, Dione.
Quaoar Facts
Quaoar has only one moon, called Weywot. it orbits around Quaoar at an approximate 9000 mile distance.
Conclusion
All in all, this is all we know about Quaoar so far. It’s essentially a dwarf planet in everything but name only, however since we have known about it since 2002, it is very surprising that it hasn’t been catalogued as a dwarf planet just yet.
The science
Chad Trujillo and Michael E. Brown discovered Quaoar with a 48-inch wide telescope at Palomar Observatory at the California Institute of Technology. Using the Hubble Space Telescope to measure its width and diameter, they found it to be around 800 miles in diameter.
The woo
Quaoar already became named after a Native American creation god, yet as usual, the creationists are trying to give Yaweh all the credit.
Where did the Quaoar come from?
The IAU later officially named the object Quaoar (pronounced “Kwawar”). It’s a native American name – from the Tongva people of the area around Los Angeles, where the discovery of Quaoar was made. The name represents an ancient creator god of the Tongva people. Later, astronomer Michael Brown reported a moon for Quaoar.
How far is Quaoar from Pluto?
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was able to measure Quaoar and found it to be about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) wide.
How many exposures does Quaoar have?
Here’s how Quaoar actually looks to us from our earthly vantage point, through a large telescope. This image is a sum of 16 separate exposures made using the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002.
Who named the moon for Quaoar?
Later, astronomer Michael Brown reported a moon for Quaoar. The moon is estimated to have only one two-thousandth the mass of its parent world. The IAU named the moon for the sky god Weywot, son of Quaoar.
Is Vegastar a dwarf planet?
It’s massive enough to be considered a dwarf planet – much as Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet – under new guidelines from the International Astronomical Union ...
Overview
Quaoar (50000 Quaoar), provisional designation 2002 LM60, is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. A non-resonant object (cubewano), it measures approximately 1,121 km (697 mi) in diameter, about half the diameter of Pluto. The object was discovered by American astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the Palomar Observatory on 4 J…
History
Quaoar was discovered on 4 June 2002 by American astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the Palomar Observatory in the Palomar Mountain Range in San Diego County, California. The discovery formed part of the Caltech Wide Area Sky Survey, which was designed to search for the brightest Kuiper belt objects using the Palomar Observatory's 1.22-meter Samuel Oschin telescope. …
Orbit and classification
Quaoar orbits the Sun at an average distance of 43.7 AU (6.54 billion km; 4.06 billion mi), taking 288.8 years to complete one full orbit around the Sun. With an orbital eccentricity of 0.04, Quaoar follows a nearly circular orbit, only slightly varying in distance from 42 AU at perihelion to 45 AU at aphelion. At such distances, light from the Sun takes more than 5 hours to reach Quaoar. Quaoa…
Physical characteristics
Quaoar's albedo or reflectivity could be as low as 0.1, similar to Varuna's albedo of 0.127. This may indicate that fresh ice has disappeared from Quaoar's surface. The surface is moderately red, meaning that Quaoar is relatively more reflective in the red and near-infrared spectrum than in the blue. The Kuiper belt objects Varuna and Ixion are also moderately red in the spectral class. Larger K…
Rotation
Quaoar's rotation period is uncertain, and two possible rotation periods of Quaoar are given (8.64 hours or 17.68 hours). Derived from the rotational light curves of Quaoar observed on March through June 2003, its rotation period is measured to be 17.6788 hours.
Satellite
Quaoar has one known moon, Weywot (full designation (50000) Quaoar I Weywot), discovered in 2006. It is thought to be somewhere around 170 km (110 mi) in diameter.
Exploration
It was calculated that a flyby mission to Quaoar could take 13.57 years using a Jupiter gravity assist, based on launch dates of 25 December 2016, 22 November 2027, 22 December 2028, 22 January 2030 or 20 December 2040. Quaoar would be 41 to 43 AU from the Sun when the spacecraft arrives. In July 2016, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard the New Horizons spacecraft took a sequence of four images of Quaoar from a distance of about 14 AU. I…
External links
• Frequently Asked Questions About Quaoar Archived 8 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
• Quaoar could have hit a bigger Pluto-sized body at high speeds (Video Credit: Craig Agnor, E. Asphaug)
• Chilly Quaoar had a warmer past – Nature.com article