Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21441121l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #411.21; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.679
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The radii, albedos, shapes and rotations of Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) and Centaurs can tell us important information about the formation and evolution of the Solar System. To date these fundamental properties are unknown for most of the outer Solar System objects because current observing facilities are not adequate to obtain the required observations. For the few objects where this information is obtainable the results are usually only good to about the 20% level and are often highly model-dependent. The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM Lite) provides us with the unique potential to spatially resolve many outer Solar System objects that have small angular size. Observing these objects with SIM will allow direct measurement of their sizes and their rotations and therefore tomographically reconstructed 3-D shapes. Here we present the basic concepts of applying SIM visibility science to measure the fundamental properties of KBOs and Centaurs. From simulations with realistic scattering models of planetary surfaces, it is concluded that, in general, SIM can achieve comparable to much better accuracy than the current widely used telescopes and techniques, no matter the observing geometry or photometric and thermal properties of the objects. We will demonstrate that the current measurements of some interesting objects can be improved by SIM. We will discuss the general procedure of SIM observations for this kind of measurements, and make recommendations on the configuration of SIM and the best approach of the measurements.
Allen Reeshemah
Kuchner Marc J.
Li Jianyang
Sheppard Scott S.
No associations
LandOfFree
Physical Properties of Outer Solar System Objects with SIM does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Physical Properties of Outer Solar System Objects with SIM, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Physical Properties of Outer Solar System Objects with SIM will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1106854