Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) - 2014 FZ7 and 2015 FJ345
Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI) & S. Sheppard,
et. al.
Animation of Kuiper Belt Object 2014 FZ71 created from the discovery
images.
Each image in the sequence was taken approximately three hours apart. Image
Credit: Scott S. Sheppard/Chad Trujillo/DECam
Each image in the sequence was taken approximately three hours apart. Image
Credit: Scott S. Sheppard/Chad Trujillo/DECam
Two new Kuiper Belt objects, 2014 FZ71 and 2015 FJ345, are among the
most distant bodies in the Solar System. They are always further than
50AU from the Sun, and only Sedna and 2012 VP113 have larger perihelia.
The discovery was made using data from DECam on the Blanco 4-m telescope
at CTIO.
The new trans-Neptunian objects were discovered by Scott Sheppard,
Chad Trujillo, and David Tholen in their search for objects beyond the
outer edge of the Kuiper Belt (at about 50 AU). Unlike the more extreme
Sedna and 2012 VP113, the new objects have moderate eccentricities. All
the new moderately eccentric objects beyond the Kuiper Belt edge are
near strong Neptune mean motion resonances. These new moderately
eccentric objects likely obtained their unusual orbits through a
combined interaction between Neptune’s mean motion resonance and the
Kozai resonance. The discovery images for 2014 FZ71, shown at right,
were obtained on 24 March 2014. An arrow indicates the approximate
position of 2014 FZ71, which moves relative to the background stars and
galaxies in this sequence of 3 images taken approximately 3 hours apart.
