Size and albedo of Kuiper belt object 55636 from a stellar occultation

被引：75

作者：

Elliot, J. L. ^{[1
,2
,3
]}

Person, M. J. ^{[1
]}

Zuluaga, C. A. ^{[1
]}

Bosh, A. S. ^{[1
]}

Adams, E. R. ^{[1
]}

Brothers, T. C. ^{[1
]}

Gulbis, A. A. S. ^{[1
,4
]}

Levine, S. E. ^{[1
,5
,6
]}

Lockhart, M. ^{[1
]}

Zangari, A. M. ^{[1
]}

Babcock, B. A. ^{[7
]}

DuPre, K. ^{[8
]}

Pasachoff, J. M. ^{[8
]}

Souza, S. P. ^{[8
]}

Rosing, W. ^{[9
]}

Secrest, N. ^{[10
]}

Bright, L. ^{[3
]}

Dunham, E. W. ^{[3
]}

Sheppard, S. S. ^{[11
]}

Kakkala, M. ^{[12
]}

Tilleman, T. ^{[5
]}

Berger, B. ^{[13
]}

Briggs, J. W. ^{[13
,14
]}

Jacobson, G. ^{[13
]}

Valleli, P. ^{[13
]}

Volz, B. ^{[13
]}

Rapoport, S. ^{[15
]}

Hart, R. ^{[16
]}

Brucker, M. ^{[17
]}

Michel, R. ^{[18
]}

Mattingly, A. ^{[19
]}

Zambrano-Marin, L. ^{[20
]}

Meyer, A. W. ^{[21
]}

Wolf, J. ^{[22
]}

Ryan, E. V. ^{[23
]}

Ryan, W. H. ^{[23
]}

Morzinski, K. ^{[24
]}

Grigsby, B. ^{[24
]}

Brimacombe, J. ^{[25
]}

Ragozzine, D. ^{[26
]}

Montano, H. G. ^{[27
]}

Gilmore, A. ^{[28
]}

机构：

[1] MIT, Dept Earth Atmospher & Planetary Sci, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

[2] MIT, Dept Phys, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

[3] Lowell Observ, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 USA

[4] So Africa Large Telescope & S African Astron Obse, ZA-8935 Cape Town, South Africa

[5] USNO, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 USA

[6] Amer Assoc Variable Star Observers, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

[7] Williams Coll, Dept Phys, Williamstown, MA 01267 USA

[8] Williams Coll, Dept Astron, Williamstown, MA 01267 USA

[9] Las Cumbres Observ Global Telescope Network, Santa Barbara, CA 93117 USA

[10] Univ Hawaii, Hilo, HI 96720 USA

[11] Carnegie Inst Sci, Dept Terr Magnetism, Washington, DC 20015 USA

[12] Univ Hawaii, Dept Geol, Leeward Community Coll, Pearl City, HI 96782 USA

[13] Amateur Telescope Makers Boston, Westford, MA 01886 USA

[14] Dexter Southfield Sch, Brookline, MA 02145 USA

[15] Mt Stromlo & Siding Spring Observ, Res Sch Astron & Astrophys, Weston, ACT 2611, Australia

[16] Univ So Queensland, Mt Kent Observ, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia

[17] Univ Nebraska, Dept Phys & Astron, Lincoln, NE 68588 USA

[18] Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Astron, Ensenada 22800, Baja California, Mexico

[19] IBM Corp, St Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia

[20] Univ Texas Brownsville, Texas Southmost Coll, Nompuewenu Observ, Brownsville, TX 78520 USA

[21] NASA, Univ Space Res Assoc, SOFIA, Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA

[22] NASA, Deutsch SOFIA Inst, SOFIA, Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA

[23] Magdalena Ridge Observ, Socorro, NM 87801 USA

[24] Univ Calif Santa Cruz, Dept Astron & Astrophys, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA

[25] James Cook Univ, Cairns, Qld 4870, Australia

[26] Harvard Smithsonian Ctr Astrophys, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

[27] Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Astron Observ, Managua, Nicaragua

[28] Mt John Univ Observ, Lake Tekapo 7945, New Zealand

来源：

NATURE | 2010年 / 465卷 / 7300期

关键词：

DWARF PLANET HAUMEA; 2003; EL61; COLLISIONAL FAMILY; COLOR DIVERSITY; SATELLITES; MEMBERS;

D O I：

10.1038/nature09109

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

The Kuiper belt is a collection of small bodies (Kuiper belt objects, KBOs) that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune and which are believed to have formed contemporaneously with the planets. Their small size and great distance make them difficult to study. KBO 55636 (2002 TX300) is a member of the water-ice-rich Haumea KBO collisional family(1). The Haumea family are among the most highly reflective objects in the Solar System. Dynamical calculations indicate that the collision that created KBO 55636 occurred at least 1 Gyr ago(2,3). Here we report observations of a multi-chord stellar occultation by KBO 55636, which occurred on 9 October 2009 UT. We find that it has a mean radius of 143 +/- 65 km (assuming a circular solution). Allowing for possible elliptical shapes, we find a geometric albedo of 0.88(0.06)(+0.15) in the V photometric band, which establishes that KBO 55636 is smaller than previously thought and that, like its parent body, it is highly reflective. The dynamical age implies either that KBO 55636 has an active resurfacing mechanism, or that fresh water-ice in the outer Solar System can persist for gigayear timescales.

引用

页码：897 / 900

页数：4

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