| Minorplanet: | yes |
| Background: |
|
| (181708) 1993 FW | |
| Discovered: | 28 March 1993 |
| Mp Category: | Trans-Neptunian object (cubewano)[1] |
| Epoch: | 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5)[2] |
| Semimajor: | 43.967AU |
| Perihelion: | 41.642AU |
| Aphelion: | 46.293abbr=onNaNabbr=on |
| Eccentricity: | 0.052899 |
| Period: | 291.54 yr (106487 d) |
| Inclination: | 7.7336° |
| Asc Node: | 187.837° |
| Arg Peri: | 40.180° |
| Avg Speed: | 4.489 km/s |
| Dimensions: | 175 km[3] 241 km[4] |
| Abs Magnitude: | 7.0 |
| Mean Motion: | / day |
| Observation Arc: | 5456 days (14.94 yr) |
| Uncertainty: | 3 |
| Jupiter Moid: | 36.2333AU |
(181708) 1993 FW (provisional designation ) is a cubewano and was the second trans-Neptunian object to be discovered after Pluto and Charon, the first having been 15760 Albion, formerly known as . It was discovered in 1993 by David C. Jewitt and Jane X. Luu at the Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii.[5] Following its discovery it was nicknamed "Karla" after a character by John le Carré by its discoverers[6] and was hailed as that of a new planet.[7] Mike Brown lists it as possibly a dwarf planet on his website.[4]
181708 was discovered half a year after Albion.[8]
Over one thousand bodies were found in a belt orbiting between about 30-50 AU from the Sun in the twenty years (1992-2012), after finding 1992 QB1 (named in 2018, 15760 Albion), showing a vast belt of bodies more than just Pluto and Albion.[9] By 2018, over 2000 Kuiper belts objects were discovered.[10]
The mid-1990s were a time when the new region "came to life", triggering a retrospective of various predictions about second asteroid or comet belts in the outer solar system.[8]
Three more KBOs found in 1993 are (15788) 1993 SB,[11] (15789) 1993 SC, and (385185) 1993 RO.