The discovery of Quaoar

 

The size of Quaoar

Quaoar is a newly discovered Kuiper Belt object, found in June 2002 by Chad Trujillo and Mike Brown at Caltech in Pasadena. Quaoar is about 1250 km in size, which makes it the largest body discovered in our solar system since Pluto was discovered in 1930. It is approximately half the diameter of Pluto. This means that it is just as large as all the 50,000 numbered asteroids taken together! Here's a picture of Quaoar compared to some other Solar System objects, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope graphic designers:

 

 

The search for objects

The discovery of Quaoar didn't happen by chance, but was part of a planned search program; Chad Trujillo says: "First of all, we are looking for objects like Quaoar because we think there may be a lot of objects like it that are undiscovered, and maybe even objects bigger than Pluto. We spent about 7 months looking for it with a semi-automated telescope, the Oschin Telescope at Palomar, California".

The actual discovery of Quaoar

According to Chad Trujillo, the first discovery image was taken at 2002 June 04 05:41:40 (Universal Time = Greenwich, England) from the Palomar Observatory 48-inch Oschin telescope. view chart

He continues: "I identified Quaoar in the image at 2002 Jun 05 10:48:08 (Pacific Daylight Time)." view chart

The naming of Quaoar

When trying to understand the characteristics of an object like this, it is always good to look at the original meaning attached to the name, and the reasons for why the name was given. Therefore I here choose to give the words from the discoverer and his source as to the meaning of the name Quaoar.

Chad Trujillo says: "The Tongva people (sometimes called the San Gabrielino Native Americans) inhabited the Los Angeles area before the arrival of the Spanish and other European people. The name "Quaoar" (pronounced kwah-o-wahr) comes from their creation mythology. In the words of Mark Acuña, Tongva scholar, dancer and tribal elder:

"'Quaoar' the great force of creation sings and dances the high ones (Dieties) into existence. While Quaoar has no form or gender he is usually referred to with the male pronoun. He dances and sings first 'Weywot' who becomes Sky Father; they sing and dance 'Chehooit' Earth Mother into existence. The trio sing 'Tamit' Grandfather Sun to life. As each divine one joins the singing and dancing, the song becomes more complex and the dance more complicated. In turn 'Moar', Grandmother Moon (a very complex diety), 'Pamit' the Goddess of the sea, 'Manit', the Lord of dreams and visions, 'Manisar' the bringer of food and harvests, 'Tukupar Itar' Sky Coyote (who is also our major hero), 'Tolmalok', the Goddess of Shishongna (the underworld) join in the singing, dancing and creating. And finally the great seven giants who hold up the worlds are created. The High Ones in turn are aided by 'Eagle, Duck, Bear, and Frog' in a grand earth diving story. Frog brings up soil out of the deep dark sea, and the four animals dance it flat and wide. The 'Gods and Goddesses' then furnish the world 'Tovangar' with hills, mountains, trees, rivers, etc. 'Tobohar' (first man) and 'Pahavit' (first woman) are also part of this great 'Creation song and dance cycle'."" Tongva website

Astronomical data of Quaoar

Designation	(50000)
name	Quaoar
Prov. Des.	2002 LM60
q	41.648
Q	44.733
H	2.6
Epoch	20021122
M	263.5
Peri.	162.7
Node	188.9
Incl.	8.0
e	0.036
a	43.191

You will find explanations for the above quantities here

Ephemeris of Quaoar

You can check out the zodiacal ephemeris positions of Quaoar here.

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Sources

1. Chad Trujillo, Caltech, Pasadena; http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~chad/quaoar/

2. List of Transneptunian Objects; http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/TNOs.html