Weywot (moon)
( 14 ± 4) or ( 150 ± 4) °
- Michael E. Brown
- T.-A. Suer
Weywot is a moon of the Kuiper Belt asteroids and dwarf planets cubewanos candidates (50000) Quaoar. Its average diameter is estimated 95 kilometers.
Discovery and designation
Was Weywot on February 14, 2006 by Michael E. Brown and T.-A. Suer discovered by observations of Quaoar with the Hubble Space Telescope. Weywot was at 0.35 arcsec distance from Quaoar found a difference in the apparent brightness of 5.6 ± 0.2. The discovery was announced on 22 February 2007; the moon was given the provisional designation S/2007 (50000) 1
Brown left the choice of the name of the Tongva, who opted for the Weywot God, the Son of Quaoar. Weywot was created by singing of Quaoar. The name was mentioned on October 4, 2009 at MPC 67220 and by the International Astronomical Union ( IAU) officially released on 11 November 2009 in IAUC 9094.
Web properties
Weywot Quaoar orbits in a slightly elliptical orbit at 14,500 km average distance to the center ( 32.584 Quaoarradien ). The orbital eccentricity is 0.14, the train is 14 ° or 150 ° inclined to the ecliptic.
Weywot Quaoar orbits in 12 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes, resulting in a Quaoar year corresponds to approximately 8457.7 rounds (about 288.01 Earth years ).
Michael Brown thinks that the moon is caused by an impact on Quaoar, in which the latter has lost a substantial amount of its ice shell. The mass of Weywot is estimated to be about 1/2000 the mass of Quaoar.
Physical Properties
Assuming the same albedo and the same density as Quaoar, one can infer a diameter of about 95 ± 24 km, which corresponds to about one tenth of the diameter of Quaoar. Probably Weywot from the same material as Quaoar is composed: Large quantities of water ice, as well as methane and other frozen gases which surround a rocky core.