2014 MU69
New Horizons target, 2014 MU69 (green circles), as it travels across a dense field of stars and noise in the background. Images taken at 10-minute intervals by WFC3 in 2014.
|
|
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Hubble Space Telescope |
| Discovery site | Earth's orbit |
| Discovery date | 26 June 2014 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | (486958) 2014 MU69 |
|
2014 MU69 · PT1 1110113Y · 11 |
|
|
cubewano · TNO distant |
|
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 16 February 2017 (JD 2457800.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 5 · 2 | |
| Observation arc | 118 days · 851 days |
| Aphelion | 46.434 AU |
| Perihelion | 42.341 AU |
| 44.387 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.0461 · 0.036 |
| 295.73 yr (108,015 days) |
|
|
Average orbital speed
|
4.47 km/s |
| 304.15° | |
| 0° 0m 11.88s / day | |
| Inclination | 2.4521° · 1.9° |
| 158.98° | |
| 185.14° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 30–45 km (19–28 mi) 25–45 km (16–28 mi) 18–41 km (11–25 mi) |
| 0.04–0.10 (assumed) 0.04–0.15 (assumed) |
|
| 26.8 | |
| 10.9 | |
(486958) 2014 MU69 (initially called PT1 and 1110113Y by the New Horizons and Hubble teams, respectively) is a classical Kuiper belt object. It is the target for the New Horizons probe for a flyby on 1 January 2019, after its Pluto flyby. It was selected as New Horizons' target in August 2015. After four course changes in October and November 2015, New Horizons is on course toward 2014 MU69.
On 26 June 2014, 2014 MU69 was discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope during a preliminary survey to find a suitable Kuiper belt object for the New Horizons probe to flyby. The discovery required the use of the Hubble Space Telescope, because with an apparent magnitude of nearly 27 it is too faint for all but the most powerful telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope is also capable of very precise astrometry and hence a reliable orbit determination.
When 2014 MU69 was first observed, it was labelled 1110113Y, and nicknamed "11", for short. Its existence as a potential target of the New Horizons probe was announced by NASA in October 2014 and it was designated PT1 ("Potential Target 1"). Its official designation, 2014 MU69, was assigned by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) in March 2015 after sufficient orbital information was gathered.
The name 2014 MU69 is a provisional designation and indicates that it was the 1745th object (("U" => 20) + ("69" x 25)) discovered between 16 and 30 June 2014 ("2014", "M").
Based on its brightness and distance, 2014 MU69 is estimated to have a diameter of 18–41 km (10–30 mi). Its orbital period is slightly more than 295 years and it has a low inclination and low eccentricity compared to other objects in the Kuiper Belt. This unexcited orbit means that it is a cold classical Kuiper belt object which is unlikely to have undergone significant perturbations. Observations in May and July 2015 greatly reduced the uncertainties in the orbit, as well as observations in July and October 2016, and the updated orbit parameters are available in the MPC database.
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