Orbit
Considered a detached object, 2004 XR190 is particularly unusual for two reasons. With an inclination of 47 degrees, it is the most "tilted" dwarf-planet candidate discovered thus far, traveling further "up and down" than "left to right" around the Sun when viewed edge-on along the ecliptic. Second, it has an unusually circular orbit for a scattered-disc object (SDO). While it is thought that traditional scattered-disc objects have been ejected into their current orbits by gravitational interactions with Neptune, the low eccentricity of its orbit and the distance of its perihelion (SDOs generally have highly eccentric orbits and perihelia less than 38 AU) seems hard to reconcile with such celestial mechanics. This has led to some uncertainty as to the current theoretical understanding of the outer Solar System. The theories include close stellar passages, rogue planets/planetary embryos in the early Kuiper belt, and resonance interaction with an outward-migrating Neptune. The Kozai mechanism is capable of transferring the orbital eccentricity into an elevated inclination.
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Famous quotes containing the word orbit:
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—David Lehman (b. 1948)
““To my thinking” boomed the Professor, begging the question as usual, “the greatest triumph of the human mind was the calculation of Neptune from the observed vagaries of the orbit of Uranus.”
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—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link. The men on the freight trains, who go over the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)