5145 Pholus

5145 Pholus (foe'-ləs, from Φόλος) is a centaur in an eccentric orbit, with a perihelion less than Saturn's and aphelion greater than Neptune's. Close approches are rare: It has not come within one astronomical unit of a planet since 764 BC, and will not again until 5290. It is believed to have originated as a Kuiper belt object.

It was discovered by David L. Rabinowitz, then of the University of Arizona's Spacewatch Project, and named after Pholus, the brother of the mythological Chiron, after which 2060 Chiron was named in order to follow the tradition of naming this class of outer planet crossing objects after Centaurs.

Pholus was the second centaur type asteroid to be discovered and was quickly found to be quite red in color, for which it has been occasionally nicknamed "Big Red". The color has been speculated to be due to organic compounds on its surface (Wilson, et al., 1994).

The surface composition of Pholus has been estimated from its reflectance spectrum using two spatially segregated components (Cruikshank, et al., 1998): dark amorphous carbon and an intimate mixture of water ice, methanol ice, olivine grains, and complex organic compounds (tholins). The carbon black component was used to match the low albedo of the object.

Unlike the first Centaur, 2060 Chiron, Pholus has shown no signs of cometary activity.

The diameter of Pholus is estimated to be 185±16 km

References

• Wilson PD, Sagan C, Thompson WR (1994). "The organic surface of 5145 Pholus: constraints set by scattering theory". Icarus 107 288–303. PMID 11539180
• Cruikshank DP, and 14 colleagues (1998). "The Composition of Centaur 5145 Pholus". Icarus 135 389–407.
• SOLEX

External links

• Orbital simulation from JPL (Java) / Ephemeris