Photometric Properties Of The 2003 El61 Collisional Family. A Recent Origin ?

Details Photometric Properties Of The 2003 El61 Collisional Family. A Recent Origin ? Photometric Properties Of The 2003 El61 Collisional Family. A Recent Origin ?

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.3904r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #39.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.491

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Brown et al [1] present evidence for a group of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) with orbits and reflectance spectra similar to the Pluto-sized body 2003 EL61 which is a fast rotator [2] with multiple satellites[3]. All these bodies have neutral reflectance and deep water-ice absorption bands. Brown et al. propose that they are all fragments ejected from the mantle of 2003 EL61 in a collision that spun up the primary and created the satellites. Here we examine the photometric properties of 4 of 6 group members (2003 EL61, 2002 TX300, 2003 OP32, and 2005 RR43), which we have observed recently with the SMARTS 1.3m telescope at Cerro Tololo. We show that (1) their BVI colors are close to neutral; and (2) most have solar phase curves conspicuously flat compared to the general population. As discussed by Rabinowitz et al [4], these are characteristics shared by the Pluto-sized KBOs with high albedos, and a likely indication of freshly exposed, bright icy surfaces. With the exception of 2005 RR43, which has a steeper phase curve consistent with smaller KBOs, this suggests that the 2003 EL61 family members have freshly exposed surfaces. Unless there is an intrinsic process resurfacing these bodies, then the collision that created the family must have occurred more recently than the time it would take space weathering to darken the surfaces.
[1] Brown, M. et al, 2007, Nature 446, 294-296.
[2] Rabinowitz, D. et al. 2006, ApJ 639, 1238-1251.
[3] Brown, M. et al. 2007, ApJ 639, L43-46.
[4] Rabinowitz et al. 2007, AJ 133, 26-43.

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