15760 Albion
15760 Albion (provisional designation 1992 QB1) was the first trans-Neptunian object to be discovered after Pluto and Charon. Measuring about 108–167 kilometres in diameter, it was discovered in 1992 by David C. Jewitt and Jane X. Luu at the Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. After the discovery, they dubbed the object "Smiley" and it was shortly hailed as the tenth planet by the press. It is a "cold" classical Kuiper belt object and gave rise to the name cubewano for this kind of object, after the QB1 portion of its designation. Decoding its provisional designation, "QB1" reveals that it was the 27th object found in the second half of August of that year. As of January 2018, around 2,400 further objects have been found beyond Neptune, a majority of which are classical Kuiper belt objects. It was named after Albion from William Blake's mythology.
Long-exposure image of Albion (circled) taken by the European Southern Observatory in September 1992 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | D. C. Jewitt J. X. Luu |
| Discovery site | Mauna Kea Obs. |
| Discovery date | 30 August 1992 |
| Designations | |
MPC designation | (15760) Albion |
| Pronunciation | /ˈælbiən/ |
Named after | Albion (mythology by William Blake) |
Alternative designations | 1992 QB1 |
Minor planet category | TNO · cubewano (cold) distant |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 3 | |
| Observation arc | 26.34 yr (9,621 days) |
| Aphelion | 47.042 AU |
| Perihelion | 40.809 AU |
Semi-major axis | 43.925 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.07096 |
Orbital period (sidereal) | 291.13 yr (106,334 days) |
Mean anomaly | 34.041° |
Mean motion | 0° 0m 12.188s / day |
| Inclination | 2.1797° |
Longitude of ascending node | 359.276° |
| 0.7765° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
Mean diameter | 108 km 167 km |
| 0.2 (assumed) | |
| RR (red) B–V=0.869±0.143 V−R=0.707±0.093 V−I=1.212±0.146 | |
| 23.3 | |
| 7.38±0.06 · 7.1 | |