scattered-disc object
Gonggong
One of the largest known trans-Neptunian objects, a slowly rotating red world with a moon, named after a Chinese water god.
- Distance from Earth today
- 13.38 billion km89.46 AU · light: 12 h 24 min
- Distance from the Sun today
- 13.45 billion km89.88 AU
- As of
- 3 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Rotation period
- 22.4 h
- Semi-major axis
- 66.86 AU (10.00 billion km)
- Perihelion
- 33.11 AU
- Aphelion
- 100.6 AU
- Orbital period
- 546.7 years
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.505
- Orbital inclination
- 30.9°
- Perihelion passage
- 21 December 1856
- Minimum orbit distance from Earth’s orbit (MOID)
- 32.18 AU (4.81 billion km)
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 2007 – Meg Schwamb, Michael E. Brown, David Rabinowitz
Description
Gonggong is one of the largest known bodies beyond Neptune, discovered in 2007 by Meg Schwamb, Michael Brown and David Rabinowitz at Palomar Observatory. For years it was known only by its provisional designation, 2007 OR10, until its name – after a Chinese water god with red hair – was chosen in a public vote. It is very red, rotates slowly, and its surface shows water ice and possibly methane. Its moon, Xiangliu, named after Gonggong's serpent-like minister, allowed astronomers to estimate its mass.