![]() The object is named after Gònggōng, a Chinese water god responsible for chaos, floods and the tilt of the Earth. ![]() Gonggong's large mass makes retention of a tenuous atmosphere of methane just possible, though such an atmosphere would slowly escape into space. It may be sufficiently massive to be plastic under its own gravity and therefore a dwarf planet. Gonggong was discovered in July 2007 by American astronomers Megan Schwamb, Michael Brown, and David Rabinowitz at the Palomar Observatory, and the discovery was announced in January 2009.Īt approximately 1,230 km (760 mi) in diameter, Gonggong is the size of Pluto's moon Charon, and is the fifth-largest known trans-Neptunian object. According to Deep Ecliptic Survey Gonggong is in a 3:10 orbital resonance with Neptune, in which it completes three orbits around the Sun for every ten orbits completed by Neptune. As of 2019, its distance from the Sun is 88 AU (13.2 × 10 ^ 9 km 8.2 × 10 ^ 9 mi), and it is the sixth-farthest known Solar System object. ![]() It has a highly eccentric and inclined orbit during which it ranges from 34–101 astronomical units (5.1–15.1 billion kilometers 3.2–9.4 billion miles) from the Sun. Gonggong (formally 225088 Gonggong provisional designation 2007 OR 10) is a dwarf planet, a member of the scattered disc beyond Neptune. ![]()
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