Sizes, Shapes, And Rotations Of Kuiper Belt Objects And Centaurs With SIM

Details Sizes, Shapes, And Rotations Of Kuiper Belt Objects And Centaurs With SIM Sizes, Shapes, And Rotations Of Kuiper Belt Objects And Centaurs With SIM

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21330008l&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #363.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.268

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Scientific paper

Dwarf planets and other larger Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) contain important clues to the formation of the Solar System. Currently the radii and albedo of these objects are unknown or only good to the 20 percent level. A single visibility measurement with the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM Lite) will enable us to directly measure the angular size and albedo of these bodies. A time series of SIM observations should allow us to tomographically reconstruct their 3-D shapes as they rotate past. This basic physical information will allow us to determine other important physical properties of these objects, including temperature, density, porosity, etc, in conjunction with other visible and/or IR data collected elsewhere. Here we show the basic methods of applying SIM visibility science in observing KBOs and Centaurs. We used the best currently available observations of a short list of bright KBOs and Centaurs to generate simulated images and rotation sequences of these objects under various illumination and viewing geometries, assuming particular surface scattering models. These simulations were used to construct a practical observing sequence and demonstrate the tomographic reconstruction of the 3-D shapes of these bodies.

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