A Pluto-like radius and a high albedo for the dwarf planet Eris from an occultation

Details A Pluto-like radius and a high albedo for the dwarf planet Eris from an occultation A Pluto-like radius and a high albedo for the dwarf planet Eris from an occultation

Oct 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011natur.478..493s&link_type=abstract

Nature, Volume 478, Issue 7370, pp. 493-496 (2011).

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

3

Scientific paper

The dwarf planet Eris is a trans-Neptunian object with an orbital eccentricity of 0.44, an inclination of 44 degrees and a surface composition very similar to that of Pluto. It resides at present at 95.7 astronomical units (1AU is the Earth-Sun distance) from Earth, near its aphelion and more than three times farther than Pluto. Owing to this great distance, measuring its size or detecting a putative atmosphere is difficult. Here we report the observation of a multi-chord stellar occultation by Eris on 6 November 2010 UT. The event is consistent with a spherical shape for Eris, with radius 1,163+/-6kilometres, density 2.52+/-0.05 grams per cm3 and a high visible geometric albedo, . No nitrogen, argon or methane atmospheres are detected with surface pressure larger than ~1nanobar, about 10,000 times more tenuous than Pluto's present atmosphere. As Pluto's radius is estimated to be between 1,150 and 1,200 kilometres, Eris appears as a Pluto twin, with a bright surface possibly caused by a collapsed atmosphere, owing to its cold environment. We anticipate that this atmosphere may periodically sublimate as Eris approaches its perihelion, at 37.8 astronomical units from the Sun.

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