Hubble image archive
Hubble Images of 2007 OR10
This sequence of images, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, shows a moon circling the dwarf planet 2007 OR10. The top four images were taken Nov. 6, 2009; the bottom four, on Sept. 18, 2010.As 2007 OR10 orbits the sun, it changes position with respect to t...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2017
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2017-18-4037-image
This sequence of images, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, shows a moon circling the dwarf planet 2007 OR10. The top four images were taken Nov. 6, 2009; the bottom four, on Sept. 18, 2010.
As 2007 OR10 orbits the sun, it changes position with respect to the background stars (the bright objects that change from panel to panel). The snapshots reveal that the moon moves with the dwarf planet, proving that it is gravitationally bound to the larger body.
2007 OR10 is the third-largest known dwarf planet, behind Pluto and Eris, and the largest unnamed world in the solar system. The pair is located in the Kuiper Belt, a realm of icy debris left over from the solar system's formation.
The dwarf planet is about 950 miles across; the moon is estimated to be 150 miles to 250 miles in diameter. 2007 OR10, like Pluto, follows an eccentric orbit, but it is currently three times farther than Pluto is from the sun.
Credits
NASA, ESA, C. Kiss (Konkoly Observatory), and J. Stansberry (STScI)Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | 2007 OR10 |
| Object Description | Trans-Neptunian Dwarf Planet |
| Distance | 2007 OR10 is approximately 87 AU from the sun |
| Dimensions | 2007 OR10 is approximately 954 miles (1,535 kilometers) in diameter. The companion is approximately 147 miles (237 kilometers) in diameter. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | HST data from proposals , M. Brown (Caltech) and , W. Fraser (Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics) were used in the analysis. |
| Instrument | HST WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | Nov. 6, 2009, Sep. 18, 2010 |
| Filters | WFC3/UVIS: F606W, F775W, and F814W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images were taken with HST's WFC3/UVIS instrument using the F606W, F775W, and F814W filters. Color was added to the grayscale images using a blue color mapping. Blue: F606W+F775W+F814W (B) |
Downloads
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov