 Long-exposure image of Albion (circled) taken by theEuropean Southern Observatory in September 1992 | |
| Discovery[1][2] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | D. C. Jewitt J. X. Luu |
| Discovery site | Mauna Kea Obs. |
| Discovery date | 30 August 1992 |
| Designations | |
| (15760) Albion | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈælbiən/ |
Named after | Albion[3] (mythology byWilliam Blake) |
| 1992 QB1 | |
| TNO[1] · cubewano[4][5] (cold)[6] distant[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 3 | |
| Observation arc | 26.34 yr (9,621 days) |
| Aphelion | 47.042AU |
| Perihelion | 40.809 AU |
| 43.925 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.07096 |
| 291.13yr (106,334 days) | |
| 34.041° | |
| 0° 0m 12.188s / day | |
| Inclination | 2.1797° |
| 359.276° | |
| 0.7765° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 108 km[6] 167 km[4] | |
| 0.2 (assumed)[6] | |
| RR (red)[7] B–V=0.869±0.143[8] V−R=0.707±0.093[8] V−I=1.212±0.146[8] | |
| 23.3[9] | |
| 7.38±0.06[10] · 7.1[1] | |
15760 Albion (provisional designation1992 QB1) was the firsttrans-Neptunian object to be discovered afterPluto andCharon. Measuring about 108–167 kilometres in diameter, it was discovered in 1992 byDavid C. Jewitt andJane X. Luu at theMauna Kea Observatory,Hawaii. After the discovery, they dubbed the object "Smiley" and it was shortly hailed as the tenth planet by the press.[11][12] It is a "cold"classical Kuiper belt object and gave rise to the namecubewano for this kind of object, after theQB1 portion of itsdesignation.[13]Decoding its provisional designation, "QB1" reveals that it was the 27th object found in the second half of August of that year.[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 afterAlbion fromWilliam Blake's mythology.[14]
Thisminor planet was named afterAlbion from thecomplex mythology of English poet and painterWilliam Blake (1757–1827). Albion is the island-dwelling primeval man whose division resulted intoThe Four Zoas: Urizen, Tharmas, Luvah/Orc and Urthona/Los. The name Albion itself derives from the ancient and mythological name of Britain.[3] The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 31 January 2018 (M.P.C. 108697).[15]
The discoverers suggested the name "Smiley" for(15760) 1992 QB1,[16] but the name was already used for an asteroid1613 Smiley, named after the American astronomerCharles Hugh Smiley. It has received the number 15760[5] 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).
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.[17][18] By 2018, over 2000 Kuiper belt objects were discovered.[18]
Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, Albion measures approximately 167 kilometers (107 miles) indiameter, for an assumedalbedo of 0.9 and amagnitude 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 adwarf planet candidate ("probably not"). As of 2021, no rotationallightcurve for this body has been obtained from photometricobservations. Itsrotation period and pole, as well as its composition and shape remain unknown.
^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.
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