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The Discovery and Orbit of (2060) Chiron

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

C. T. Kowal ,
W. Liller  and
B. G. Marsden
C. T. Kowal
Affiliation:
Hale Observatories, Carnegie Institute of Washington California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, U.S.A.
W. Liller
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
B. G. Marsden
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.

Extract

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“Slow-moving Object Kowal” was recognized by the first author on 1977 November 1 on plates obtained with the 122-cm Schmidt telescope at Palomar two weeks earlier (Kowal 1977a). The object, asteroidal in appearance and of photographic magnitude about 18, was found to have moved less than 3′ between similar 75-minute exposures made on October 18 and 19. For something only 8° from opposition this retrograde motion was significantly slower than the 8′-15′ daily motion of normal minor planets at opposition and immediately suggested that the object was located at almost the distance of Uranus. There was a slight possibility that the object was closer and moving almost directly toward or away from the earth, but the fact that the two trails were identical in length to ± 6 percent suggested that this was unlikely. That the object was well beyond the main belt of minor planets was confirmed when Gehrels (1977) succeeded in identifying it close to the extrapolated position near the corner of an exposure obtained with the same telescope on October 11.

Type
Part V: Minor Planets
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 81: Dynamics of the Solar System , 1979 , pp. 245 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1979 

References

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