474640 Alicanto

474640 Alicanto
Discovery [1][2]
Discovered byA. C. Becker
Discovery siteCerro Tololo
Discovery date6 November 2004
Designations
(474640) Alicanto
Named after
Alicanto [1][2]
(Chilean mythology)
2004 VN112
TNO [3] · detached[4]-ETNO
Orbital characteristics [3][4]
Epoch 17 December 2020 (JD 2459200.5)
Uncertainty parameter 3[3] · 0[1]
Observation arc15.94 yr (5,821 d)
Aphelion608 AU (barycentric)[5]
618.32 AU
Perihelion47.289 AU
328 AU (barycentric)[5]
332.80 AU
Eccentricity0.8579
5900 yr (barycentric)[5]
6071 yr (2,217,590 d)
0.6822°
0° 0m 0.72s / day
Inclination25.572°
65.996°
326.72°
Physical characteristics
0.04 (est.)[6]
23.3[10]
6.5[1][3]

474640 Alicanto (provisional designation 2004 VN112) is a detached[4] extreme trans-Neptunian object. It was discovered on 6 November 2004, by American astronomer Andrew C. Becker at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. It never gets closer than 47 AU from the Sun (near the outer edge of the main Kuiper belt) and averages more than 300 AU from the Sun. Its large eccentricity strongly suggests that it was gravitationally scattered onto its current orbit. Because it is, like all detached objects, outside the current gravitational influence of Neptune, how it came to have this orbit cannot yet be explained. It was named after Alicanto, a nocturnal bird in Chilean mythology.

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