Salacia
- Image of Salacia and its moon from the Keck Telescope
- Artist Depiction of Salacia
- Celestia Model
Discovery Data
Discovered By
Michael E. Brown
Discovered On
July 29, 2005
Physical Characteristics
Diameter
~846 Km (if Salacia & Actaea were Spherical)
Number of Moons
1
Orbital Characteristics
Perihelion
37.697 AU
Aphelion
46.670 AU
Salacia, officially designated as 120347 Salacia, provisional designation 2004 SB60, is a large planetoid in the Kuiper belt, approximately 850 kilometers in diameter. As of 2018, it is located 44.8 astronomical units from the Sun, and reaches apparent magnitude 20.7 at opposition.
Salacia was discovered on 22 September 2004, by American astronomers Henry Roe, Michael Brown and Kristina Barkume at the Palomar Observatory in California, United States. It has been observed 124 times, with precovery images back to 25 July 1982. Salacia orbits the Sun at an average distance that is slightly greater than that of Pluto. It was named after the Roman goddess Salacia and has a single known moon, Actaea.
Trivia[]
- Given that the Salacia System should've undergone enough Tidal Evolution to Circularize their Orbits, which is consistent with the Low Measured Eccentricity, but that the Parent Object wouldn't need to be tidally Locked. The Ratio of the Semi-Major Axis to the Hill Radius of the Parent is around 0.0023. this makes the Salacia System the Tightest Trans-Neptunian Binary with a Known Orbit.
| Dwarf Planets and Dwarf Planet Candidates | ||
|---|---|---|
| Asteroid Belt | Consensus | Ceres |
| Possible | Hygeia • Vesta | |
| Centaurs | Possible | Chariklo • Chiron • 2013 TC₁₄₆ • 2014 NW₆₅ |
| Plutinos | Consensus | Orcus • Pluto |
| Possible | Huya • Ixion • 2001 QF₂₉₈ • 2002 VR₁₂₈ • 2002 XV₉₃• 2003 AZ₈₄ • 2003 UZ₄₁₃ • 2003 VS₂ • 2007 JH₄₃ • 2017 OF₆₉ | |
| Twotinos | Possible | 2002 WC₁₉ |
| Cubewanos and other Kuiper Belt Objects | Consensus | Haumea • Makemake • Quaoar |
| Possible (cubewanos) | Chaos • Salacia • Varda • Varuna • 1998 SN₁₆₅ • 2002 AW₁₉₇ • 2002 CY₂₄₈ • 2002 KX₁₄ • 2002 MS₄ • 2002 UX₂₅ • 2002 QW₉₀ • 2004 GV₄ • 2004 NT₃₃ • 2004 PF₁₁₅ • 2004 TY₃₆₄ • 2004 UX₁₀ • 2005 RN₄₃ • 2005 UQ₅₁₃ • 2010 FX₈₆ • 229762 Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà | |
| Possible (other) | 1999 CD₁₅₈ • 1999 DE₉ • 2000 YW₁₃₄ • 2002 XW₉₃ • 2010 JO₁₇₉ • 2010 VK₂₀₁ • 2011 FW₆₂ • 2011 GM₂₇ • 2013 FZ₂₇ • 2014 UM₃₃ • 2015 AM₂₈₁ • 2015 RR₂₄₅ | |