| Chiron was discovered on November 1, 1977, by Charles Kowal at the Hale Observatory in Pasadena, California. Chiron was an unusual body in that it was too large to be a comet and much too bright to be a minor planet. So there was a lot of confusion and debate about its exact classification. At one point, Chiron did become classified as a comet, albeit a very large one – 50,000 times the size of a normal comet and nearly the size of an asteroid.
The debate continued until Chiron eventually became known as the first of the "Centaurs." These objects are thought to come from the Kuiper Belt, which includes thousands of such objects orbiting beyond Pluto. Some of these objects escape the Belt and enter our solar system with erratic orbits. Chiron's orbit is highly eccentric and elliptical, falling mostly between Saturn and Uranus, and taking about 49 - 51 years to complete its cycle around the Sun.
Several other Centaurs have been discovered and named in the past decade and all have now been classified as minor planets. But Chiron remains in a class by itself – the largest of the Centaurs, and the only one classified as both a comet and a minor planet.
Traditionally, when a planet or object is discovered in our solar system, one way astrologers begin to interpret its meaning is by its relation to what is happening at that time in history. Also the mythology of the named object is looked at. This may seem a stretch, since usually they are named by an astronomer who may know little or nothing about that particular mythology. Perhaps the only explanation why this may work in interpretation is synchronicity!
For example, Pluto's discovery in 1930 coincided with the era of Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. Pluto is the god of the underworld and associated with death and destruction. The discovery of Uranus in 1781 is synchronized with the French and American Revolutions. Uranus is the planet of rebellion, revolution and independence. |