2011 HM102
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovery date | April 29, 2011 |
| Designations | |
| Trojan asteroid | |
| Orbital characteristics[1][2] | |
| Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 4 | |
| Aphelion | 32.588 AU (4.8751 Tm) |
| Perihelion | 27.643 AU (4.1353 Tm) |
| 30.115 AU (4.5051 Tm) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.082112 |
| 165.27 yr (60364.7 d) | |
| 31.306° | |
| Inclination | 29.393° |
| 100.983° | |
| 149.92° | |
| Earth MOID | 26.656 AU (3.9877 Tm) |
| Jupiter MOID | 22.4655 AU (3.36079 Tm) |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 90–180 km |
| 8.1[1] | |
2011 HM102, also written 2011 HM102, is the ninth Neptune trojan discovered. It was first observed on April 29, 2011 by the New Horizons KBO Search Survey.[3] It has the same orbital period as Neptune and orbits at the L5 Lagrangian point about 60 degrees backwards of Neptune.[4]
Orbit
2011 HM102 follows a low-eccentricity (0.08) orbit, and its semi-major axis (30.05 AU) is very similar to Neptune's (30.10 AU), orbiting in a 1:1 mean-motion resonance with it. It has a high orbital inclination of 29.42°.[1][4] This large value makes 2011 HM102, as of July 2013, the highest-inclination Neptune trojan known.[4] 2011 HM102 has been observed 145 times, over two oppositions.[1]
Physical properties
With an absolute magnitude of 8.1,[1][4] it has a diameter somewhere between 90 kilometres (56 mi) and 180 kilometres (110 mi).[5] This makes 2011 HM102, as of October 2012, the brightest L5 trojan in the entire Solar System.
Exploration
In October 2012, 2011 HM102 was the closest known object of any kind to the New Horizons spacecraft.[6] In mid- to late-2013, New Horizons passed within 1.2 AU of 2011 HM102, where it would be detectable with one of the onboard instruments.[3] An observation from New Horizons would measure the phase curve of 2011 HM102 at phase angles unobtainable from Earth. The New Horizons team eventually decided that they would not target 2011 HM102 for observations because the preparations for the Pluto approach took precedence.[7]
References
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- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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