Number

136108

Provisional name

2003 EL61

Class

Dwarf Planet
Plutoid
Cubewano

Discovery data

07.03.2003 - 00:40:40 UT - Sierra Nevada Observatory, Granada, Spain

Discovered by

Aceituno, Santos-Sanz, Ortiz

Discovery position

9° Libra 57'

Time of announcement

29.07.2005 - 0:27 UT

Orbital period

284.7 years

Orbit

Aphelion

51.549 AU

Perihelion

34.835 AU

Semimajor axis

43.192 AU

Magnitude

0.2

Diameter

2000 km

 

Santa and Santa's Little Helper

At the moment it's controversial who actually discovered 2003 EL61. On MPC's List of Transneptunian Objects the discoverer appears to be Jose-Luis Ortiz's team from Spain. The object was also observed by Mike Brown's team on 28.12.2004, and therefore the nickname "Santa". You can read more about the subject on Mike Brown's website.

Brown's team also discovered in January 2005 that 2003 EL61 has a little moon, "Rudolph". Afterwards has been discovered that EL61 has also another satellite.

The family of 2003 EL61

In the very distant past another object slammed into 2003 EL61 at high speed, and this giant impact led to all of the odd properties of EL61.

2003 EL61 is the fastest rotating body of its size class in our solar system, and it is also the most bizarrely shaped body of this size. The rotation period is only 3,9 hours. The shape of EL61 is therefore stretched out resembling a cigar. The rotation time may be near the point where body of this size starts to break down.

2003 EL61 is followed in its orbit around the Sun by a swarm of icy bodies that were originally ejected from the surface of EL61 during the giant impact. The 2003 EL61 family currently includes these objects: 2003 EL61, 2002 TX300, 2005 RR43, 2003 OP32, 1996 TO66, 1995 SM55, 2003 UZ117, and 1999 OY3. More about the 2003 EL61 family on Mike Brown's website.