20000 Varuna
E79025
Kuiper Belt object
classical Kuiper Belt object
cubewano
large trans-Neptunian object
minor planet
non-resonant trans-Neptunian object
trans-Neptunian object
20000 Varuna is a large trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper Belt, notable for its rapid rotation, elongated shape, and status as one of the earliest discovered significant bodies beyond Neptune.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| 20000 Varuna canonical | 3 |
| 2000 WR106 | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T633435 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 20000 Varuna Context triple: [Kuiper Belt object, example, 20000 Varuna]
-
A.
Makemake
Makemake is a large, icy dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, known for its extremely cold surface and status as one of the most massive objects beyond Neptune.
-
B.
Haumea
Haumea is an elongated, fast-spinning dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt notable for its rapid rotation, ring system, and two known moons.
-
C.
Eris
Eris is a distant, icy dwarf planet in the outer reaches of the Solar System, notable for its size comparable to Pluto and its role in prompting the redefinition of planetary status.
-
D.
Pallas
Pallas was a British Royal Navy frigate active during the American Revolutionary War, notably engaged in North Sea operations against French and American forces.
-
E.
Komet
Komet was the nickname of the Messerschmitt Me 163, a German World War II rocket-powered interceptor aircraft known for its extraordinary speed and unconventional design.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: 20000 Varuna Target entity description: 20000 Varuna is a large trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper Belt, notable for its rapid rotation, elongated shape, and status as one of the earliest discovered significant bodies beyond Neptune.
-
A.
Makemake
Makemake is a large, icy dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, known for its extremely cold surface and status as one of the most massive objects beyond Neptune.
-
B.
Haumea
Haumea is an elongated, fast-spinning dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt notable for its rapid rotation, ring system, and two known moons.
-
C.
Eris
Eris is a distant, icy dwarf planet in the outer reaches of the Solar System, notable for its size comparable to Pluto and its role in prompting the redefinition of planetary status.
-
D.
Pallas
Pallas was a British Royal Navy frigate active during the American Revolutionary War, notably engaged in North Sea operations against French and American forces.
-
E.
Komet
Komet was the nickname of the Messerschmitt Me 163, a German World War II rocket-powered interceptor aircraft known for its extraordinary speed and unconventional design.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Kuiper Belt object
ⓘ
classical Kuiper Belt object ⓘ cubewano ⓘ large trans-Neptunian object ⓘ minor planet ⓘ non-resonant trans-Neptunian object ⓘ trans-Neptunian object ⓘ |
| absoluteMagnitude | ~3.7 ⓘ |
| albedo | ~0.07 ⓘ |
| aphelionDistance | ~45.5 AU ⓘ |
| catalog | Minor Planet Center database ⓘ |
| color | moderately red ⓘ |
| diameter |
600–700 km
ⓘ
~650 km ⓘ |
| discoverer |
David L. Rabinowitz
ⓘ
surface form:
D. L. Rabinowitz
David L. Rabinowitz ⓘ
surface form:
K. Rabinowitz
|
| discoveryDate | 2000-11-28 ⓘ |
| discoveryMethod | CCD imaging survey ⓘ |
| discoveryRank | one of the first large trans-Neptunian objects found after Pluto and Charon ⓘ |
| discoverySite |
Kitt Peak National Observatory
ⓘ
Spacewatch ⓘ |
| dynamicalClass | hot classical Kuiper Belt object ⓘ |
| eccentricity | ~0.056 ⓘ |
| hasRings | no confirmed rings ⓘ |
| hasSatellite | no confirmed satellites ⓘ |
| inclination | ~17 degrees ⓘ |
| lightcurveAmplitude | large ⓘ |
| lightcurveInterpretation | highly elongated body or contact binary ⓘ |
| meanMotionResonance | none with Neptune ⓘ |
| mpcNumber | 20000 ⓘ |
| namedAfter |
Hindu god Varuna
ⓘ
surface form:
Hindu deity Varuna
Varuna ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being one of the earliest discovered large Kuiper Belt objects
ⓘ
elongated shape ⓘ rapid rotation ⓘ |
| orbitalPeriod | ~283 years ⓘ |
| orbitalRegion |
Kuiper Belt
ⓘ
trans-Neptunian region ⓘ |
| orbits | Sun ⓘ |
| perihelionDistance | ~40.7 AU ⓘ |
| provisionalDesignation |
20000 Varuna
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
2000 WR106
|
| rotationCharacteristic | rapid rotation ⓘ |
| rotationPeriod | ~6.34 hours ⓘ |
| semiMajorAxis | ~43.1 AU ⓘ |
| shape | elongated ⓘ |
| spectralType | neutral to moderately red TNO spectrum ⓘ |
| status | non-dwarf-planet ⓘ |
| surfaceComposition |
complex organics
ⓘ
water ice ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: 20000 Varuna Description of subject: 20000 Varuna is a large trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper Belt, notable for its rapid rotation, elongated shape, and status as one of the earliest discovered significant bodies beyond Neptune.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Kuiper Belt object
this entity surface form:
2000 WR106