Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Apr 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994icar..108..219y&link_type=abstract
Icarus, vol. 108, no. 2, pt. 1, p. 219-224
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
26
Astronomical Models, Charon, Light Curve, Limb Darkening, Planetary Limb, Pluto (Planet), Radii, Stellar Occultation, Least Squares Method, Satellite Orbits
Scientific paper
Over the past several years Pluto-Charon mutual events have yielded progressively more accurate estimates of Charon's orbital elements and the radii of Pluto and Charon (e.g., Buie, Tholen, and Horne, 1992). Analysis of the 1988 stellar occultation by Pluto indicates a radius for Pluto that is about 4%, or 50 km, larger than the mutual event radius of 1151 km. One possible explanation for the discrepancy is that the mutual event modeling treats Pluto and Charon as uniformly bright disks. If they are limb-darkened, the mutual event fits could underestimate their radii. In this paper we use an independent mutual event data set (Young and Binzel, 1992) to fit for Pluto and Charon's radii in a manner independent of either object's limb profile or albedo distribution. Our least-squares solution indicates that Pluto's radius is 1164 +/- 22.9 km and Charon's radius is 621 +/- 20.6 km.
Binzel Richard P.
Young Eliot Fisher
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