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| 2012 VP113 | |
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| Name | 2012 VP113 |
2012 VP113 is a distant trans-Neptunian minor planet discovered in 2012 that resides in the inner Oort cloud region beyond the orbit of Neptune and the Kuiper Belt near the heliocentric boundary influenced by Planet Nine hypotheses, the Scattered disc, and the Oort cloud. It was announced alongside discussions involving astronomers affiliated with institutions such as Carnegie Institution for Science, University of Arizona, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and observers using facilities like the Blanco 4m Telescope and the Magellan Telescopes. The object's discovery contributed to debates involving orbital clustering studies by teams including Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo, and later commentators such as Katherine Brown and researchers from Caltech and University of Cambridge.
The object was found during a survey led by observers associated with the Carnegie Institution for Science and the University of Arizona using the Blanco 4m Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and later followed up with the Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory, with reports communicated through channels involving the Minor Planet Center and publications in venues read by members of the International Astronomical Union and participants in meetings of the American Astronomical Society. The provisional designation reflects its discovery year and sky quadrant convention used by the Minor Planet Center, and naming conventions overseen by the International Astronomical Union leave potential for a formal name proposed by the discoverers and ratified by the Committee on Small Body Nomenclature.
This body occupies a highly eccentric orbit with a large semimajor axis and perihelion well beyond the orbit of Neptune, placing it among objects studied in relation to the hypothesized distant perturbers like Planet Nine and dynamical structures including the Scattered disc and the inner component of the Oort cloud. Its orbital parameters—high inclination and argument of perihelion—have been compared in statistical analyses by research groups at Caltech, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and University of Cambridge to search for clustering similar to that reported for other extreme trans-Neptunian objects by Mike Brown and Chad Trujillo. Astrometric measurements reported to the Minor Planet Center have been integrated into dynamical models run on platforms in computational facilities at institutions such as NASA and the European Space Agency to evaluate long-term stability and resonance interactions with giant planets including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Photometric and thermal observations performed with instruments associated with teams from Carnegie Institution for Science and observers at the Magellan Telescopes provided estimates of absolute magnitude and surface reflectivity, informing size estimates subject to assumptions tied to albedo values typical of distant minor planets studied by researchers at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. Color measurements compared by spectroscopists from University of Arizona and Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to populations such as cold classical Kuiper Belt objects and scattered disc objects suggest surface processing possibly linked to irradiation seen in studies by groups at European Southern Observatory and laboratories at California Institute of Technology. Constraints on rotation, shape, and composition remain limited, prompting proposals for follow-up observations with facilities like the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope by teams at STScI and NASA.
Dynamical analyses by researchers affiliated with Caltech, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the University of Cambridge consider scenarios including in situ formation in a protoplanetary disk perturbed by migration of giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, scattering during early Solar System instability modeled after the Nice model, capture from a passing star in a birth cluster as proposed by investigators at Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, and shepherding by a distant massive planet invoked in the Planet Nine hypothesis promoted by Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin. Comparative studies drawing on simulations run at Los Alamos National Laboratory and computing resources at NASA Ames Research Center examine the relative likelihood of emplacement pathways into the inner Oort cloud versus retention in a detached reservoir influenced by past stellar encounters in the Sun's natal environment studied by teams at Harvard University and Princeton University.
Since its discovery, astrometry has been compiled by the Minor Planet Center and photometry reported in bulletins from the American Astronomical Society and journals where authors from Carnegie Institution for Science, University of Arizona, Caltech, and Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have published orbital refinements, color indices, and debates over observational biases discussed at conferences hosted by organizations such as the International Astronomical Union and the American Geophysical Union. Planned observations by teams proposing time on the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and ground-based surveys like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory aim to improve constraints on size, albedo, and binarity, while archival searches in datasets from the Pan-STARRS survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey continue to refine discovery completeness assessments performed by groups at University of Hawaii and University of California, Berkeley.
The object's detached orbit and high perihelion have been central in discussions by planetary scientists at institutions including Caltech, Carnegie Institution for Science, and Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics regarding the architecture of the distant Solar System, the possible existence of a distant giant planet hypothesized by Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, and the processes that populated the inner component of the Oort cloud. Its characteristics inform models of Solar System formation explored in collaboration among researchers at Princeton University, University of Cambridge, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and motivate observational programs planned with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and mission studies considered by NASA and the European Space Agency.
Category:Minor planets