15760 Albion

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15760 Albion (provisional designation Template:Mp) 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is a "cold" classical Kuiper belt object and gave rise to the name cubewano for this kind of object, after the Template:Mp portion of its designation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Decoding its provisional designation, "QB₁" reveals that it was the 27th object found in the second half of August of that year.^{{{#if:|{{{2}}}|[1]}}} 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Naming

File:AnimatedOrbitOf157601992QB1.gif

Orbit of the four outer planets (red) compared to Template:Mp (blue)

This minor planet was named after Albion from the complex mythology of English poet and painter William Blake (1757–1827). Albion is the island-dwelling primeval man whose division resulted into The Four Zoas: Urizen, Tharmas, Luvah/Orc and Urthona/Los. The name Albion itself derives from the ancient and mythological name of Britain.<ref name="MPC-object" /> The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 31 January 2018 (Template:Small).<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />

The discoverers suggested the name "Smiley" for Template:Mp,<ref>What Lurks in the Outer Solar System? (Science@NASA, 13 September 2001)</ref> but the name was already used for an asteroid 1613 Smiley, named after the American astronomer Charles Hugh Smiley. It has received the number 15760<ref name="Buie"/> and remained unnamed until January 2018 (it was normally referred to simply as "QB1", even though this was technically ambiguous without the year of discovery).

Legacy

The next year in 1993, objects in similar orbits were found including (15788) 1993 SB, (15789) 1993 SC, (181708) 1993 FW, and (385185) 1993 RO.

Over one thousand bodies were found in the Kuiper belt orbiting between about 30 and 50 AU from the Sun in the twenty years after finding 15760 Albion. This revealed a vast belt of bodies, more than just Pluto and Albion themselves.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By 2018, over 2000 Kuiper belt objects were discovered.<ref name=":0" />

Physical characteristics

Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, Albion measures approximately 167 kilometers (107 miles) in diameter, for an assumed albedo of 0.9 and an magnitude of 7.0. According to Mike Brown, who estimates a mean diameter of 108 km (66 mi), the object is too small for being considered a dwarf planet candidate ("probably not"). As of 2021, no rotational lightcurve for this body has been obtained from photometric observations. Its rotation period and pole, as well as its composition and shape remain unknown.

See also

• (181708) 1993 FW
• List of trans-Neptunian objects
• Kuiper belt

Notes

^{{#if:| }} Minor planet and asteroid provisional designations follow a format, in which the year it was discovered comes first, followed by the half-month it was discovered alphabetically (e.g. A=January 1–15, B=January 16–31 and so on, but skipping the letters I and Z) and then the order of its discovery alphabetically followed by a number (e.g. 1992 QA, 1992 QB, 1992 QC ... 1992 QY, 1992 QZ, 1992 QA1, 1992 QB1 and so on.) According to this, Q=August 16–31 and B1=25+2=27.

External links

• Beyond Jupiter: 15760 Albion, Nikolai Wünsche, Journal for Occultation Astronomy, October 2019
• The Discovery of the Kuiper Belt, David Jewitt, Astronomy Beat, 3 May 2010
• New Planet Found in the Outer Solar System, European Southern Observatory, 2 October 1992
• 1992 QB1 - First Object Discovered in Kuiper Belt, David Jewitt, 14 September 1992
• Template:AstDys
• Template:JPL small body