174567 Varda

Common card · No. 419160

174567 Varda is a large trans-Neptunian object, discovered on 21 June 2003 by American astronomer Jeffrey A. Larsen using survey images taken with the 0.9-meter Spacewatch telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. As a dynamically hot classical Kuiper belt object, Varda orbits within the Kuiper belt region. Stellar occultations in 2018 show that Varda is likely an oblate spheroid with a flattening of 0.07 and an area equivalent diameter of 740±14 km. Other triaxial ellipsoid shape models remain mathematically unconstrained. The total mass of the binary system is approximately 2.675+0.048−0.049×1020 kg with Varda contributing around 86 to 90% of it. Varda's bulk density estimates remain highly ambiguous. James Webb Space Telescope data shows a surface temperature of 44 K. Abundant frozen carbon dioxide dominates its surface. Because of its large size, some astronomers including Michael E. Brown and Noemi Pinilla-Alonso have considered it a possible dwarf planet. However, it is hypothesized...

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