Discovery of (90482) Orcus
Descubrimiento de (90482) Orcus
- Date
- 2004 · confidence high
- Place
- Palomar Observatory, California, United States
- Credited to
- Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, David Rabinowitz
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The same team that months later would find Eris located this Ceres-sized plutino, nicknamed the 'anti-Pluto' for occupying the 2:3 resonance with Neptune in the orbital phase opposite to Pluto's.
Precovery plates from Palomar itself, dating to 1951, allowed its orbit to be refined retroactively.
What it led to
- Census of large plutinos in the Kuiper belt
- Discovery of Eris and the dwarf planet definition