Plutos New Moons Part 2, News ... |
Plutos New Moons Part 2, News ... |
Dec 21 2005, 01:51 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 531 Joined: 24-August 05 Member No.: 471 |
Orbits and photometry of Pluto's satellites: Charon, S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0512491 Orbital periods: Charon - 6.3872304 +/- 0.0000011 days S/2005 P2 - 24.8562 +/- 0.0013 days S/2005 P1 - 38.2065 +/- 0.0014 days Note: The old thread - http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...wtopic=1622&hl= -------------------- - blue_scape / Nico -
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Apr 15 2006, 12:02 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0511837 From: Andrew Steffl [view email] Date (v1): Wed, 30 Nov 2005 19:37:52 GMT (124kb) Date (revised v2): Wed, 12 Apr 2006 21:25:39 GMT (249kb) New Constraints on Additional Satellites of the Pluto System Authors: A.J. Steffl, M.J. Mutchler, H.A. Weaver, S.A.Stern, D.D. Durda, D. Terrell, W.J. Merline, L.A. Young, E.F. Young, M.W. Buie, J.R. Spencer Comments: 17 pages including 4 figures Observations of Pluto and its solar-tidal stability zone were made using the Advanced Camera for Surveys' (ACS) Wide Field Channel (WFC) on the Hubble Space Telescope on UT 2005 May 15 and UT 2005 May 18. Two small satellites of Pluto, provisionally designated S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2, were discovered, as discussed by Weaver et al. (2006) and Stern et al. (2006a). Confirming observations of the newly discovered moons were obtained using the ACS in the High Resolution Channel (HRC) mode on 2006 Feb 15 (Mutchler et al. 2006). Both sets of observations provide strong constraints on the existence of any additional satellites in the Pluto system. Based on the May 2005 observations using the ACS/WFC, we place a 90%-confidence lower limit of m_V = 26.8 (m_V = 27.4 for a 50%-confidence lower limit) on the magnitude of undiscovered satellites greater than 5" (1.1x10^5 km) from Pluto. Using the 2005 Feb 15 ACS/HRC observations we place 90%-confidence lower limits on the apparent magnitude of any additional satellites of m_V = 26.4 between 3"-5" (6.9x10^4-1.1x10^5 km) from Pluto, m_V = 25.7 between 1"-3" (2.3x10^4-6.9x10^4 km) from Pluto, and m_V = 24. between 0.3"-1" (6.9x10^3-2.3x10^4 km) from Pluto. The 90%-confidence magnitude limits translate into upper limits on the diameters of undiscovered satellites of 29 km outside of 5" from Pluto, 36 km between 3"-5" from Pluto, 49 km between 1"-3" from Pluto, and 115 km between 0.3"-1" for a comet-like albedo of p_V = 0.04. If potential satellites are assumed to have a Charon-like albedo of p_V = 0.38, the diameter limits are 9 km, 12 km, 16 km, and 37 km, respectively. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0511837 -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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