(55636) 2002 TX300
Hubble Space Telescope image of 2002 TX300 taken in 2005 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | NEAT (644) |
| Discovery site | Palomar Mountain |
| Discovery date | 15 October 2002 |
| Designations | |
| (55636) 2002 TX300 | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 2 | |
| Observation arc | 22380 days (61.27 yr) |
| Aphelion | 48.365 AU (7.2353 Tm) |
| Perihelion | 37.8672 AU (5.66485 Tm) |
| 43.116 AU (6.4501 Tm) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.12174 |
| 283.12 yr (103408 d) | |
| 73.7618° | |
| 0° 0m 12.533s / day | |
| Inclination | 25.87838° |
| 324.6984° | |
| 338.958° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| |
| Mass | ~1.2×1019 kg (assumed) |
| 8.12 h (0.338 d) | |
| 0.504 d (12.101 h) | |
| |
| Temperature | < 41 K |
| |
| 19.4 | |
| 3.4 | |
(55636) 2002 TX300 is a bright Kuiper belt object in the outer Solar System estimated to be about 286 kilometres (178 mi) in diameter. It is a large member of the Haumea family that was discovered on 15 October 2002 by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program.
2002 TX300 is a classical Kuiper belt object with an absolute magnitude between that of 50000 Quaoar and 20000 Varuna. 2002 TX300 has the most eccentric and inclined orbit of the three.
A variability of the visual brightness was also detected which could fit to 7.9 h or 15.8 h rotational period (the distinction between single or double-peaked curved could not be made with confidence). The changes in brightness are quite close to the error margin and could also be due to an irregular shape.