(20000) Varuna


This object has a more recent orbit available here

Object

Object (20000) Varuna
Diameter(1) 678 km
Dynamic class(1) cubewano
Absolute magnitude 3.60
G slop 0.15
(1) Data from the johnston archive list.

Orbital elements

Epoch (Julian date) 2458600.5
Semi major axis 42.780323 ± 0.000551 au
Eccentricity 0.054122517 ± 0.000002334
Inclination 17.219690016 ± 0.000098987 °
Longitude of ascending node 97.369328 ± 0.000144 °
Argument of perihelia 262.855875 ± 0.011381 °
Mean anomaly 117.244524 ± 0.011823 °
Orbital period 279.82 yr

Ephemeris & Observations

Ephemeris version NIMAv13
Observation file (documentation) omc_ast_NIMAv13.txt
bsp file 20000_Varuna_nima_v13.bsp
Date of first observation 1954-11-24
Date of last observation 2021-03-26
Number of observations used in the fit 1146
Number of rejected observations 8
Number of DES observations 0
Number of MPC observations 678
Number of unpublished observations 476
RMS of observations 0.228 arcsec

Residuals

residual plot

Residuals in right ascension and declination compared to NIMAv13 ephemeris.
Colours indicate the estimated precision in arcsec used as weights in the fitting process.

Orbit quality

date σα (arcsec) σδ (arcsec)
2021-01 0.047 0.026
2021-07 0.039 0.027
2022-01 0.056 0.029
2022-07 0.047 0.030
2023-01 0.066 0.033
2023-07 0.056 0.033
2024-01 0.077 0.036
2024-07 0.066 0.036
2025-01 0.089 0.040

Ephemeris comparison

residual plot

Difference between NIMAv13 and JPL48 in right ascension (weighted by cos δ) and in declination.
Gray area represents the 1-σ uncertainty of NIMA ephemeris. Green dots represent the DES observations.