Thermal Emission Spectroscopy of Centaurs and KBOs

Details Thermal Emission Spectroscopy of Centaurs and KBOs Thermal Emission Spectroscopy of Centaurs and KBOs

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.4006e&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #40.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.557

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Since their discovery and recognition as important groups of Solar System bodies, physical characterization of Centaurs and KBOs has progressed rapidly. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy has revealed water ice on many of these surfaces, methanol on one Centaur and one KBO, and more exotic ices on some of the larger, planet-class KBOs. The origin and variety of vis-NIR spectral slopes, however, remains uncertain. Solid organic complexes, such as tholins, seem to be the only materials capable of reproducing the reddest slopes, but more moderate and neutral slopes could also be attributed to silicates, which are also necessary in many of the published spectral models. We will present thermal emission spectra of several Centaurs and KBOs measured with the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope, covering all or part of the 7.8 - 37 micron range. From these data, we estimate sizes and albedos, which generally agree with those derived from Spitzer/MIPS photometry. The main importance of the data, however, is the emissivity spectra. Spectral emissivity features are diagnostic of surface composition, particularly silicate mineralogy. Emissivity spectra are also very sensitive to grain size and surface structure. We have detected discrete mineralogical features in the spectra of several of the objects we observed. We interpret features in a few objects as indicative of fine-grained silicates. We will present these data and discuss our analysis.

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