Key facts
- Discovered by
- Palomar Obs.
- Discovery site
- Palomar Obs.
- Discovery date
- 10 January 2002
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ aɪ ə /
- Named after
- Aya
- Alternative designations
- 2002 AW 197
- Minor planet category
- TNO · classical (hot) , distant · Scat-Ext
- Observation arc
- 27.15 yr (9,915 d)
- Earliest precovery date
- 29 December 1997
- Aphelion
- 53.280 AU
- Perihelion
- 41.112 AU
- Semi major axis
- 47.196 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 324.02 yr (118,349 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 299.003 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 0 10.951 / day
- Inclination
- 24.382°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 297.481°
- Time of perihelion
- ≈ 5 May 2078 , ±0.4 days
via Wikipedia infobox
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
55565 Aya (provisional designation 2002 AW197) is a large trans-Neptunian object in the classical Kuiper belt. It was discovered on 10 January 2002 by astronomers at Palomar Observatory.
Aya is a large object, most likely at least 700 km in diameter. It has a rotation period of 8.8 hours and has a moderately red color. The object's brightness does not significantly vary as it rotates, which indicates it is likely spheroidal.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q155527” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.