Extreme and Extremely Tilted Kuiper Belt Object

[ktlight]

"This video shows an artistic rendering of the strange contact-binary Kuiper belt object 2001QG298 as seen from earth between 2003 and 2020. It shows how the observing angle and the lightcurve change as the object moves in its orbit along the sun. The black line on the surface of 2001QG298 marks its equator. 2001QG298 is a contact binary which was first identified between 2003 and 2004 by Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt. Its extreme shape was inferred from the large brightness oscilations (larger than 1.1 magnitudes, equivalent to a brightness variation of 3 to 1) produced as the object spins. The lightcurve (brightness variation with rotation) observed in 2003/2004 is shown in red. In 2010 the object was re-observed by Pedro Lacerda who found that the variation had decreased. The 2010 lightcurve is shown as white circles. The two sets of data imply that 2001QG298 is tilted by almost 90 degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit, as shown by the model on the left. The lightcurve produced by the model is shown as a yellow line overplotted on the red and white data points. The model lightcurve varies with time as the object moves along its orbit around the sun. The black line on the surface of 2001QG298 marks the equator and the orbital plane is considered to be horizontal."

Z2fpPO6_0uk

[Sidney]

"This video shows an artistic rendering of the strange contact-binary Kuiper belt object 2001QG298 as seen from earth between 2003 and 2020. It shows how the observing angle and the lightcurve change as the object moves in its orbit along the sun. The black line on the surface of 2001QG298 marks its equator. 2001QG298 is a contact binary which was first identified between 2003 and 2004 by Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt. Its extreme shape was inferred from the large brightness oscilations (larger than 1.1 magnitudes, equivalent to a brightness variation of 3 to 1) produced as the object spins. The lightcurve (brightness variation with rotation) observed in 2003/2004 is shown in red. In 2010 the object was re-observed by Pedro Lacerda who found that the variation had decreased. The 2010 lightcurve is shown as white circles. The two sets of data imply that 2001QG298 is tilted by almost 90 degrees with respect to the plane of its orbit, as shown by the model on the left. The lightcurve produced by the model is shown as a yellow line overplotted on the red and white data points. The model lightcurve varies with time as the object moves along its orbit around the sun. The black line on the surface of 2001QG298 marks the equator and the orbital plane is considered to be horizontal."

Z2fpPO6_0uk

Hi Ktlight, Simply put, this is way over my head. Could you explain in laymans terms, what this means for us, presently and in the near future? Thank you in advance. : )

[panopticon]

G'day Starchild111,

In answer to your query...

I had absolutely no idea what the hell this was supposed to be... :noidea:

So I did a search for: 2001QG298 (http://www.google.com.au/search?q=2001QG298)

Turns out that this is an hour glass shaped object that exists in the Kuiper Belt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt) and that it is probably two joined objects that spin like a fan. They are fused together at the end like two eggs and spin around a central axis that seems to be near the mid way, or joining, point. They rotate "like a fan" and recent observation suggests that they appear to be slowly moving (that is the "face" is rotating slowly) in relation to the sun (ie becoming more/less visible over time) and that's what this is all about.

From Daily Galaxy (http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/10/-weird-propeller-shaped-object-discovered-in-the-outer-reaches-of-the-kuiper-belt.html):

It was impossible to tell from the original observations if the rotation and the orbital plane of 2001QG298 were aligned or perpendicular i.e. whether the object spun round horizontally like the blades on a helicopter or rotated vertically like the propeller of an aeroplane. The changes to the lightcurve variation show that it must be approximately vertical.

The Youtube video also linked to an article that explained all this but evidently ktlight forgot to copy paste it. :violin:

Here is the article link:
https://habu.pst.qub.ac.uk/groups/pedrolacerda/wiki/3cf95/Extreme_and_extremely_tilted_KBO.html

I found two more articles that may explain it clearer:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/10/-weird-propeller-shaped-object-discovered-in-the-outer-reaches-of-the-kuiper-belt.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Spinning_hourglass_object_may_be_the_first_of_many_to_be_discovered_in_the_Kuiper_belt_999.html

So there's no need for anyone to get excited over this (that is unless observation of Kuiper Belt objects is your secret passion that "gets the motor running"). The article is just saying that these sorts of Kuiper Belt objects may be quite common and as our accessible technology improves we'll be able to observe more of them.

So... this video is about:

Two apparently joined small objects millions of miles away spinning approximately vertical.
The increased likelihood that these sorts of objects ('contact binaries') exist in the Kuiper Belt than was previously thought (up from 10% to 25%).
Absolutely nothing to do with the Sun and has been posted in the wrong section (should be in Astronomy and Cosmology (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/forumdisplay.php?99-Astronomy-and-Cosmology)).

Hope this helps.

Kind Regards, :yo:
Panopticon

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=KBOs
https://habu.pst.qub.ac.uk/groups/pedrolacerda/wiki/3cf95/Extreme_and_extremely_tilted_KBO.html
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/10/-weird-propeller-shaped-object-discovered-in-the-outer-reaches-of-the-kuiper-belt.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Spinning_hourglass_object_may_be_the_first_of_many_to_be_discovered_in_the_Kuiper_belt_999.html

[Sidney]

(that is unless observation of Kuiper Belt objects is your secret passion that "gets the motor running"



ROTFLMAO- seriously, that tickled my funny bone