2007 UK126
Encyclopedia
, also written as 2007 UK126, is a scattered disc object (SDO) with a bright absolute magnitude of 3.4. This qualifies it as one of the largest dwarf-planet candidates. , Mike Brown
lists it as a highly likely dwarf planet
.
Its eccentricity
of 0.49 suggests that it was gravitation
ally scattered
onto its eccentric orbit. It will come to perihelion
around 2046.
It has been observed 58 times over 9 oppositions with precovery
images back to 1982.
Michael E. Brown
Michael E. Brown has been a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology since 2003....
lists it as a highly likely dwarf planet
Dwarf planet
A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be spherical as a result of its own gravity but has not cleared its neighboring region of planetesimals and is not a satellite...
.
Its eccentricity
Orbital eccentricity
The orbital eccentricity of an astronomical body is the amount by which its orbit deviates from a perfect circle, where 0 is perfectly circular, and 1.0 is a parabola, and no longer a closed orbit...
of 0.49 suggests that it was gravitation
Gravitation
Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped...
ally scattered
Perturbation (astronomy)
Perturbation is a term used in astronomy in connection with descriptions of the complex motion of a massive body which is subject to appreciable gravitational effects from more than one other massive body....
onto its eccentric orbit. It will come to perihelion
Apsis
An apsis , plural apsides , is the point of greatest or least distance of a body from one of the foci of its elliptical orbit. In modern celestial mechanics this focus is also the center of attraction, which is usually the center of mass of the system...
around 2046.
It has been observed 58 times over 9 oppositions with precovery
Precovery
Precovery is a term used in astronomy that describes the process of finding the image of an object in old archived images or photographic plates, for the purpose of calculating a more accurate orbit...
images back to 1982.