Weywot (moon)
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| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Michael E. Brown |
| Discovery date | February 22, 2007 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | (50000) Quaoar I Weywot |
| Pronunciation | /ˈweɪwɒt/ |
| S/2006 (50000) 1 | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| ~14 500 km | |
| Eccentricity | 0.14 ± 0.04 |
| 12.438 ± 0.005 d | |
| Inclination | 14±4 or 150±4 (two solutions) |
| Satellite of | Quaoar |
| Physical characteristics | |
|
Equatorial radius
|
40 ± 5 km[2] ~37 km (12:1)[1] |
| ~24.9 | |
Weywot, officially (50000) Quaoar I Weywot, is the only known moon of the trans-Neptunian object Quaoar. Its discovery by Michael E. Brown was reported in IAUC 8812 on 22 February 2007, based on imagery taken on 14 February 2006.[3][4] The satellite was found at 0.35 arcsec from Quaoar with an apparent magnitude difference of 5.6.[5] It orbits at a distance of 14,500 km from the primary and has an orbital eccentricity of about 0.14.[1] Assuming an equal albedo and density to the primary, the apparent magnitude suggests that the moon has a diameter of about 74 km (1⁄12 of Quaoar).[1] Weywot is estimated to only have 1⁄2000 the mass of Quaoar.[1]
Name
Upon discovery, Weywot was issued a provisional designation, S/2006 (50000) 1. Brown left the choice of a name up to the Tongva (whose creator god Quaoar had been named after), who chose the sky god Weywot, son of Quaoar.[6] The name was made official in MPC #67220 published on October 4, 2009.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Fornasier et al. (2013)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Distant EKO The Kuiper Belt Electronic newsletter, March 2007
- ↑ "Heavenly Bodies and the People of the Earth", Nick Street, Search Magazine, July/August 2008
