(472651) 2015 DB216

Centaur and Uranus co-orbital yes (472651) 2015 DB 216 #C7FF8F Mount Lemmon Survey (G96) February 27, 2015 Uranus co-orbital centaurdistant (472651) 2015 DB 216 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) 2 13.17 yr (4,812 days) 25.478 AU 12.944 AU 19.211 AU 0.3262 84.20 yr (30,755 days) 314.27° 0.0117 ms / day 37.709° 6.2797° 237.99° 8.37627 AU Tm on 44–160 km1 20.8 (2015)20.7 (2016)19.4 (2029; peak) 8.4 (472651) 2015 DB 216 is a centaur and Uranus co-orbital discovered on February 27, 2015, by the Mount Lemmon Survey. It is the second known centaur on a horseshoe orbit with Uranus, and the third Uranus co-orbital discovered after 2011 QF 99 (a trojan) and 83982 Crantor (a horseshoe librator). A second Uranian trojan, 2014 YX 49, was announced in 2017. Description An early orbital calculation of the asteroid with an observation arc of 10 days suggested an extremely close MOID to Neptune, but further observations on March 27 refined the orbit to show that the asteroid passes no less than several astronomical units away from Neptune, and show the orbit instead being that of a typical centaur, with a perihelion near that of Saturn, and traveling near to Uranus and Neptune. Later, observations suggested a distant orbit traveling extremely distant from the Sun, but now this too has been shown to be incorrect with later observations. However, it does have a semi-major axis near that of Uranus, making it a Uranus co-orbital. However, it is not a trojan, as it stays near the opposite side of the Sun from Uranus. A paper, submitted on July 27, 2015, analyzed 2015 DB 216's orbital evolution, and suggested that it may be more stable than the other known Uranus co-orbitals due to its high inclination, and that many more undiscovered Uranus co-orbitals may exist. Precovery images from 2003 were located soon after 2015 DB 216's discovery, giving it an 11-year observation arc. See also (687170) 2011 QF 99 – first Uranus trojan discovered 83982 Crantor – centaur in a co-orbital configuration with Uranus (636872) 2014 YX 49 – centaur in a co-orbital configuration with Uranus and orbital resonance with Saturn Notes 1 Assuming an albedo from 0.05 (160 km) to 1 (40 km); 2015 DB 216 is definitely somewhere within this range, and cannot be any smaller than 40 kilometers, assuming the absolute magnitude is correct. References 2015 DB216 – Minor Planet Center https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=2015+DB216&commit=Show Minor Planet Center International Astronomical Union 18 March 2015 2015-04-23 last obs. JPL Small Body Database Browser https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2015%20DB216 JPL NASA 4 April 2016 de la Fuente Marcos Carlos de la Fuente Marcos Raúl Asteroid 2015 DB216: a recurring co-orbital companion to Uranus Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 27 July 2015 453 2 1507.07449 10.1093/mnras/stv1725 1288–1296 free 2015MNRAS.453.1288D de la Fuente Marcos Raúl de la Fuente Marcos Carlos Asteroid 2014 YX49: a large transient Trojan of Uranus Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 15 May 2017 467 2 1701.05541 10.1093/mnras/stx197 1561–1568 free 2017MNRAS.467.1561D External links 2472651 472651 Category:Centaurs (small Solar System bodies) Category:Discoveries by MLS Category:Uranus co-orbital minor planets 20150227