Basics
Class: Trans-Neptunian object
Location: Scattered disc
Orbit length (approx): 231.55 years
Discovered: 5th February 2002, 05:47 UTC, from Palomar Observatory, CA, by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking Project (NEAT)
Notes: Diameter of approx 162km. Binary object; its moon, identified in 2006, is named Echidna.
Events at time of discovery:
- February 5 – NASA launches the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager as part of the Explorers Program.
- – Death of Angela du Maurier, 97, English actress and novelist
- – Death of Yasutake Funakoshi, 89, Japanese sculptor and painter
- – Death of Annalee Whitmore Fadiman, 85, American screenwriter and World War II foreign correspondent
- February 6 – Queen Elizabeth II of the Commonwealth realms celebrates her Golden Jubilee, marking 50 years since her accession to the thrones of the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Naming information
Name origin: Greek Titan, son of Gaia and Tartaros.
Mythology: Typhon was a storm-giant, so huge that his head was said to brush the stars, who laid siege to the realm of the gods but was defeated by Zeus. He is said to be the cause of volcanic eruptions and of devastating storms. His name is considered to be a possible etymology for the word “typhoon”. Ekhidna was his consort, a she-dragon who birthed a number of the Titans.
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| Zeus aiming his thunderbolt at a winged and snake-footed Typhon. Chalcidian black-figured hydria (c. 540–530 BCE), held at the Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich. Photo by Bibi Saint-Pol. |
Astrological data
Discovery degree: 4+ Leo
Discovery Sabian: Rock Formations Tower Over a Deep Canyon
Discovery nodal signature: Pisces–Virgo
Estimated orbital resonances: Uranus 4:11, Neptune 5:7, Pluto 14:13, Eris 12:5
Discovery chart details: Last quarter phase with Aquarius stellium, and Earth grand trine between Chariklo, Nessus and Sedna. Mars descending and Nessus and Asbolus on IC. Mercury retrograde, Nodes stationary. Moon square Uranus; Sun sextile Pluto, square Sedna and quincunx Chariklo. Mercury-Pallas trine Vesta; Venus sesquiquadrate Jupiter and semi-square Chiron, with the two in opposition. Saturn trine Neptune; Juno opposite Ceres and Uranus. Pluto square Chariklo; Asbolus square Eris and sextile Pholus.
Summary and references
Interpretations given so far include: storms, earthquakes or volcanic activity, literal or figurative[1]; power struggles (especially with the system), infighting[2]; insistent emotional pressure, and emotional drives that can break through obstacles to freedom[3]; possible links to pandemics[4]; fighting for admission, perseverance, intense energy, the occult, iconoclasm, disruption of systems, resolute ambition[5]; the intense self that we fear and seek to restrain or repress[6]; heat, reptiles, hidden weapons, overwhelm versus tackling a task in manageable steps[7].
References:
1) Alex Miller: Typhon 42355
2) Mark Andrew Holmes: Typhon
3) Amable: (42355) Typhon
4) Kirsti Melto: Full Moon in Aries – October 5, 2017
5) Benjamin Adamah: Typhon in astrology
6) Linda Lee Berry: Typhon
7) Philip Sedgwick: New Dwarf Planets, Eris, Sedna, Centaurs & More
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| Discovery chart for (42355) Typhon: 5th February 2002, 05:47 UTC, Palomar Mountain, CA. The body is not depicted. |