7066 Nessus is a centaur (a type of icy planetoid) that was found by David L. Rabinowitz, working with Spacewatch, at Kitt Peak on 26 April, 1993. It was the second centaur found by him (5145 Pholus being his first), and the third centaur to be found (2060 Chiron was the first). It was officially announced on May 13, 1993 in IAUC 5789 with designation 1993 HA2.
Nessus finishes one orbit around the Sun in 122.4 years, an eccentricity of 0.52 and an inclination to the ecliptic of 15.6 degrees. At perihelion (closest approach to the Sun), it moves closer to the Sun than Uranus, while at aphelion (farthest approach to the Sun) it goes even farther thanNeptune.
The orbits of centaurs change from time to time because of interactions with the giant planets. Nessus is thought to have a fairly long orbital half-life of about 4.9 Myr.[4]
References [change]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 7066 Nessus (1993 HA2)". 2004-05-26 last obs. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Nessus. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 John Stansberry, Will Grundy, Mike Brown, Dale Cruikshank, John Spencer, David Trilling, Jean-Luc Margot (2007). "Physical Properties of Kuiper Belt and Centaur Objects: Constraints from Spitzer Space Telescope". University of Arizona, Lowell Observatory, California Institute of Technology, NASA Ames Research Center, Southwest Research Institute, Cornell University. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0702538v2. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
- ↑ Wm. Robert Johnston (22 August 2008). "List of Known Trans-Neptunian Objects". Johnston's Archive. http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/tnoslist.html. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
- ↑ Horner, J.; Evans, N.W.; Bailey, M. E. (2004). Simulations of the Population of Centaurs I: The Bulk Statistics. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph?papernum=0407400. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
Other websites [change]
|
Small Solar System bodies
|
|
|
|
|
