20000 Varuna



         


20000 Varuna ("VAIR uh nuh") is a Kuiper Belt object about 1060 kilometers in diameter, estimated from a combination of thermal and optical measurements.

Varuna
Orbital characteristics
Orbit type Kuiper belt
Semimajor axis 43.129 AU
Eccentricity 0.051
Orbital period 283 Years
Inclination 17.2°
Physical characteristics
Diameter 1060(+180/-220) km
Density ~1 g/cm3
Rotation period 3.17 or 6.34 hours
Albedo 0.038(+0.022/-0.010)
History
Discoverer R. S. McMillan (Spacewatch), 2000

Little is known about Varuna. It has a rotational period of approximately 3.17 hours (or 6.34 hours, depending on whether the light curve is single or double-peaked). It has a density of approximately 1 g/cm3 (as dense as water), which implies that it may not be a fully solid body .

It is named after the Hindu god Varuna. It previously had the systematic name 2000 WR106.

[Top]




  View Live Article   This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License