66652 Borasisi

66652 Borasisi, or as a binary (66652) Borasisi–Pabu (provisional designation ), is a binary classical Kuiper belt object. It was discovered in September 1999 by Chad Trujillo, Jane X. Luu and David C. Jewitt and identified as a binary on 23 August 2003 by K. Noll and colleagues using the Hubble Space Telescope.

Binary<span class="anchor" id="Satellite"></span>

In 2003 it was discovered that Borasisi is a binary with the components of comparable size (about 100–130&nbsp;km) orbiting the barycentre on a moderately elliptical orbit. The total system mass is about 3.4&nbsp;kg.

The companion (66652) Borasisi I, named Pabu, orbits its primary in on an orbit with a semi-major axis of and an eccentricity . The orbit is inclined with respect to the observer by about 54° meaning that is about 35° from the pole-on position.

Physical properties

The surface of both components of the Borasisi–Pabu system is very red.

Naming

Borasisi is named after a fictional creation deity taken from the novel Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. In the book, Borasisi is the Sun and Pabu is the name of the Moon:

Borasisi, the sun, held Pabu, the moon, in his arms and hoped that Pabu would bear him a fiery child. But poor Pabu gave birth to children that were cold, that did not burn... Then poor Pabu herself was cast away, and she went to live with her favorite child, which was Earth.

Exploration

Around 2005, Borasisi was considered as a target for the proposed New Horizons 2 after a Triton/Neptune flyby.

References

External links

• IAUC 8143