79360 Sila–Nunam

79360 Sila–Nunam

79360 Sila–Nunam, also known by its provisional designation 1997 CS₂₉, is a special object in space called a cold classical Kuiper belt object, or cubewano. It is located far beyond the planet Neptune in our Solar System.

This object is special because it is a binary system, meaning it is made up of two parts that orbit each other. These two parts are named Sila and Nunam, and they are almost the same size. The name "Sila–Nunam" comes from combining the names of these two bodies.

This object helps scientists learn more about the distant and icy parts of our solar system.

Discovery

Sila–Nunam was found on 4 February 1997 by Jane X. Luu, David C. Jewitt, Chad Trujillo, and Jun Chen at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii. It was called 1997 CS₂₉ at first. Later, scientists using the Hubble saw that it is made of two parts, Sila and Nunam, moving around each other. This was announced on 5 October 2005.

Name

The two parts of this object are named after old Inuit gods. Sila is the god of the sky, weather, and life. Nuna is the goddess of the earth. In some stories, Nuna is Sila's wife and she created the land animals and the Inuit people. In other stories, Sila created the first people from wet sand and gave them life.

Orbit

Sila–Nunam is a cold classical object in space, also called a cubewano. It travels around the Sun near the planet Neptune in a special pattern called a 4:7 mean-motion resonance.

Physical characteristics

In 2010, scientists used the Herschel Space Telescope to study Sila–Nunam. They first thought it was one object, but later found it is made of two parts that are almost the same size. The two parts are about 243 and 230 kilometers across.

Sila–Nunam looks very red and its light does not change much when looked at with special telescopes. It does not show signs of water ice. The brightness of Sila–Nunam changes in a regular pattern as the two parts orbit each other. Both parts spin in a way that keeps them facing each other as they move.

Double system

Sila and Nunam are two parts of a special pair called a double cubewano. They are almost the same size, with Sila being about 250 km wide and Nunam about 236 km wide. They circle each other every 12.51 days at a distance of about 2,777 km.