SKYVERSE
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Planet

Quaoar

Dwarf planet

Quaoar

Ringed dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt

Photo: JosephTheDalmatian · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quaoar is a ringed dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a band of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. It has an ellipsoidal shape with an average diameter of about 1,100 km (680 mi), about half the size of the dwarf planet Pluto. The object was discovered by American astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at Palomar Observatory on 4 June 2002. Quaoar has a reddish surface made of crystalline water ice, tholins, and traces of frozen methane.

Description from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Key facts

Distance

Outer solar system

Mean radius

535 km

Orbital period

286 years

Discovered

2002 · Chadwick Trujillo

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