Salacia

Salacia is a fun object. It’s almost certainly big enough to be a dwarf planet. It has a moon named Actaea. And, it’s at opposition today. Because Salacia is on the outbound half of its orbit right now, this is the closest it will be in the remainder of our lifetimes. It won’t be until about 2105 that it gets this close again.

~850 km Kuiper Belt Object 120347 Salacia is at opposition today (44 AU). A near certain Dwarf Planet. @plutokiller pic.twitter.com/f7NA1xywQk

— Ron Baalke (@RonBaalke) September 22, 2015

Oh, and, Salacia is special to me because I discovered it. We weren’t looking for it. We were looking for something else, which we didn’t find. But, that’s sometimes how science progresses.