10 th planet has a Moon Jadwiga Daszyska-Daszkiewicz Instytut
Astronomiczny, UWr. 28 October 2005, Journal Club
Slide 2
July 30, 2005 - an object larger than Pluto has been discovered
in the Kuiper belt discovered in the Kuiper belt Team: Mike Brown
(Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Obs.) David Rabinowitz (Yale Uni.)
David Rabinowitz (Yale Uni.) Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar
Observatory (48-inch) Brown, Trujillo, Rabinowitz,,Discovery of the
planetary-sized object in the scattered Kuiper belt
astro-ph/0508663, submitted to ApJL, August 30, 2005 2003
UB313
Slide 3
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF 2003 UB313 the largest known object in
orbit beyond Neptun the most distant object yet seen in the Solar
System currently near aphelion at 97.5 0.01 AU 4th brightest KBO i
= 43 o.993 0.001, e = 0.4378 0.0001 spectrum dominated by
absorption due to methane
Slide 4
Basic characteriscts of 2003 UB313 The orbit of 2003 UB313
Slide 5
Relative reflectance of 2003 UB313
Slide 6
September 10, 2005 - moon discovered orbiting 10th planet
October 3, 2005 the press announcement team of Mike Brown team of
Mike Brown,,Satellites of the largest Kuiper belt object Brown et
al., submitted to ApJL, October 2, 2005 Keck II Telescope, Laser
Guide Star Adaptive Optics system S/2005 (2003 UB313) 1 S/2005
(2003 UB313) 1
Slide 7
LASER GUIDE STAR ADAPTIVE OPTICS SYSTEM - allows to measures
and correct for the aberrations of starlight - works similarly to
natural guide star - instead of a natural bright star uses 589 nm
laser light
Slide 8
Images of the four brightest KBO from Keck LGS AO
Slide 9
Keck Observatory image of 2003 UB313 and S/2005
Slide 10
Basic characteristics of S/2005 fractional brightness of
satellite 0.02 apparent semi-major axis 0.53 true semi-major axis
36000 km orbital period 14 days
Slide 11
Relative sizes and separations of 2003 UB313 and S/2005
Slide 12
Why is the discovery of the moon important ? MASS OF THE 10th
PLANET THE HISTORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM