# 471325 Taowu

**471325 Taowu** (provisional designation 2011 KT<sub>19</sub>; formerly nicknamed Niku) is a trans-Neptunian object and centaur (small body orbiting between Jupiter and Neptune, crossing giant planets' orbits) whose orbit is retrograde and tilted about 110 degrees from the ecliptic, the orbital plane of Earth, so that it circles the Sun nearly perpendicular to the way the planets do<sup>[1](https://thesolarsystem.fandom.com/wiki/471325_Taowu)</sup>.

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Designations | (471325) Taowu; provisional designation 2011 KT<sub>19</sub>; former nickname "Niku"<sup>[1](https://thesolarsystem.fandom.com/wiki/471325_Taowu)</sup> |
| Class | Trans-Neptunian object; centaur<sup>[1](https://thesolarsystem.fandom.com/wiki/471325_Taowu)</sup> |

## Discovery and loss

Taowu was first detected on 31 May 2011 by the Mount Lemmon Survey, and the [Minor Planet Center](https://www.edgepedia.org/minor-planet-center) announced it two days later, on 2 June 2011, after other telescopes confirmed the object.

Because the orbital uncertainty was large, the object was observed for at most 8 days and was then lost before further observations could be made<sup>[1](https://thesolarsystem.fandom.com/wiki/471325_Taowu)</sup>.

## Recovery in 2016

In 2016, a team of astronomers led by Ying-Tung Chen searched [Pan-STARRS](https://www.edgepedia.org/pan-starrs) 1 survey observations for trans-Neptunian objects. The team found the object in Pan-STARRS data from 2013 to 2016 and showed that it moved on an unusual retrograde, polar orbit.

When Chen's team submitted the observations to the Minor Planet Center, the object was identified with the 2011 Mount Lemmon detections.

## Orbit

Taowu orbits the Sun on a centaur orbit that crosses the region of the outer planets. At epoch 17 October 2024 its osculating elements were a semi-major axis of 35.713 AU, an eccentricity of 0.3325, and an inclination of 110.311 degrees, giving a perihelion distance of 23.839 AU and an aphelion of 47.588 AU.

The retrograde, high-inclination orbit is the object's defining property. An inclination above 90 degrees means the body orbits the Sun in the direction opposite to the planets, and at 110 degrees the orbit is close to perpendicular to the ecliptic<sup>[1](https://thesolarsystem.fandom.com/wiki/471325_Taowu)</sup>.

The orbit solution is based on an observation arc of 14.05 years, or 5,131 days, with the earliest precovery observation dated 10 May 2010, and carries an uncertainty parameter of 2.

## Physical properties

The albedo assumption drives the size estimate: a RECON occultation prediction for the object notes that with H = 7.4, the diameter would be 193.2 km for a 5 percent albedo but only 78.9 km for a 30 percent albedo<sup>[2](https://www2.boulder.swri.edu/~buie/recon/events/471325_260614_2381461.html)</sup>.

A stellar occultation by Taowu, in which the object briefly blocks the light of a background star, was predicted for 14 June 2026, with a geocentric closest approach at 13:15:11 UTC. At that time the object was calculated to be 30.2 AU from the Sun and 29.7 AU from Earth, moving at 26.4 km/s relative to the star on the sky<sup>[2](https://www2.boulder.swri.edu/~buie/recon/events/471325_260614_2381461.html)</sup>.

## References

1. [471325 Taowu, The Solar System Wiki](https://thesolarsystem.fandom.com/wiki/471325_Taowu)
2. [RECON: TNO occultation with (471325) 11KT19, 2026 June 14](https://www2.boulder.swri.edu/~buie/recon/events/471325_260614_2381461.html)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Extraterrestrial places › Small bodies of the Solar System › Centaurs*

*Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026*

*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*

License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license