A Deep Search for Companions in the Pluto-Charon System

Details A Deep Search for Companions in the Pluto-Charon System A Deep Search for Companions in the Pluto-Charon System

Jul 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004hst..prop10427w&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #10427

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #10427 Solar System

Scientific paper

We propose to perform a deep search for new satellites in the Pluto-Charon system using the ACS in WFC mode. In a single orbit, ACS/WFC imaging will reach a sensitivity that is 5.5 mag fainter than previous surveys, and we will be able to detect objects that are only 5 km in diameter, if they have the same albedo as Pluto {50%}, and 17 km if the albedo is similar to that of cometary nuclei {4%}. The discovery of a satellite in the Pluto-Charon system would be an exciting development in the burgeoning field of satellite formation theory and would also provide critical mission support for the New Horizons mission, which will be launched in January 2006 and will make a close flyby of Pluto-Charon as early as July 2015. Pluto is approaching the Milky Way, and observations near the time of this year's opposition will mitigate the background confusion problem, which generally becomes worse during the coming decade. The high spatial resolution of HST is ideal for this type of search in crowded stellar fields, and the field-of-view of the ACS/WFC is almost perfectly matched to the orbital stability radius of companions in the Pluto-Charon system. One additional image, taken 5 days after the first, is needed to confirm that any detected objects are truly members of the Pluto-Charon system. Thus, the entire program requires a total of only 2 orbits.

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