Photometric Observations Constraining the Size, Shape, and Albedo of 2003 EL61, a Rapidly Rotating, Pluto-sized Object in the Kuiper Belt

By D. Rabinowitz, K. Barkume, M. Brown, H. Roe, M. Schwartz, S. Tourtellotte, C. Trujillo. 2005

183 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present measurements at optical wavelengths of the spectral reflectance, rotational light curve, and solar phase curve of 2003 EL61. With apparent visual magnitude 17.5 at 51 AU from the Sun, this newly discovered member of the classical Kuiper Belt is now the third brightest KBO after Pluto and 2005 FY9. Our observations reveal an unambiguous, double-peaked rotational light curve with period 3.9154 ± 0.0002 hr and peak-to-peak amplitude 0.28 ± 0.04 mag. This is the fastest rotation period reliably determined for any body in the solar system larger than 100 km. Assuming the body has relaxed over time to the shape taken by a homogenous fluid body, our observations tightly constrain the shape and density. Given the mass we recently determined for 2003 EL61 from the orbit of a small satellite, we also constrain the size and albedo. We find a total length of 1960-2500 km, a mean density of 2600-3340 kg m-3, and a visual albedo greater than 0.6. We also measure a neutral reflectance at visible wavelengths and a linear phase curve with slope varying from 0.09 mag deg-1 in the B band to 0.13 mag deg-1 in the I band. The absolute V-band magnitude is 0.444 ± 0.021.

Subfields: Aerospace Engineering, Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/512f781cfaf5cbb77c47edeb87a6538554a49143

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In Aerospace Engineering

1. C. Trujillo
2. M. Brown

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. K. Zahnle
2. C. Trujillo
3. M. Brown
4. David C. Catling
5. Ted L. Roush
6. T. Geballe
7. S. Desch
8. A. Morbidelli

Citations in the corpus

• “TNOs are Cool”: A survey of the trans-Neptunian region (2017, unknown): “Haumea’s optical light curve is one of the best studied among TNOs (Rabinowitz et al. 2006; Lacerda & Jewitt 2007; Lacerda et al. 2008; Thirouin et al. 2010).”
• The Cosmic Shoreline: The Evidence that Escape Determines which Planets Have Atmospheres, and what this May Mean for Proxima Centauri B (2017, methodology): “The Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and Pluto/Charon have been updated to reflect more recent information (Rabinowitz et al. 2006; Brown and Schaller 2007; Brown 2013; Sicardy et al. 2011; Pál et al. 2012; Braga-Ribas et al. 2013; Fornasier et al. 2013; Lellouch et al. 2013; Wesley et al. 2013; Stern…”
• Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Charon: Possible Evidence for Cryovolcanism on Kuiper Belt Objects (2006, background): “Intermediate-sized KBOs (400 km P r P 750 km), including 2003 EL61, effective radius 660–775 km (Rabinowitz et al. 2006; Trujillo et al. 2007), Orcus, radius 800 km (de Bergh et al. 2005; Ortiz et al. 2006), and Quaoar, radius 630 95 km (Jewitt & Luu 2004; Brown & Trujillo 2004), show the narrow…”
• The Compositions of Kuiper Belt Objects (2011, background): “It is the fastest rotating and most elongated gravitation- ally bound object in the solar system, has a density nearly that of rock (Rabinowitz et al. 2006), and is surrounded by two moons (Brown et al. 2005, 2006).”