2003 EL61 is yet another object in the Kuiper Belt, discovered by Mike Brown and his team at Caltech. EL61 is also located in the region of space beyond Neptune that includes Pluto and the large planetoids Quaoar and Orcus, 2005 FY9, and the planet 2003 UB313, among others. 2003 EL61 is currently the third brightest object in this region after Pluto and 2005 FY9. It is so bright that it can readily be seen by high-end amateur telescopes equipped with CCD cameras. Other than being extremely bright, 2003 EL61 appeared at first to be typical of a type of Kuiper belt objects that astronomers call "scattered Kuiper belt objects." They are called "scattered" because it is believed that they once had a close encounter with Neptune, which gravitationally "scattered" these objects onto more eccentric orbits. The mass of 2003 EL61 is about 32% that of Pluto.
No comments:
Post a Comment