Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Dec 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999baas...31.1585c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #31, late abstracts, #59.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 31,
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
We outline two separate projects which highlight the power of adaptive optics (AO) to aid planetary research. The first project utilized AO to resolve the Pluto-Charon system by producing 0.15" FWHM images. We used the University of Hawaii AO system (Roddier et al. PASP 103, 131,1991) at CFHT to obtain deep (20 min) narrow band images in/out the molecular bands of water and methane ices. Our images confirm that the variation of Pluto's albedo is mainly governed by the presence of methane ice over its surface, resulting in a lower albedo at 2.26 um than at 2.02 um. Our observations confirm also that Charon is mostly covered with water-ice (Buie et al. NATURE 329, 522,1987). See Tholen et al. (ICARUS submitted) for more details on these AO results. In another application of AO, we discovered a moon around asteroid 45 Eugenia by use of the PUEO AO facility at CFHT (Rigaut et al. PASP 110, 152, 1998). With PUEO we preformed a search for asteroidal satellites among two dozen asteroids, achieving moderate Strehl ratios (35%) and FWHM of about 0.12" at H band. During this survey, we detected a faint close companion to 45 Eugenia. The satellite was 6.14 magnitudes (at 1.65 um) fainter and located at most 0.75" from Eugenia. Without the ability of AO (to sharpen the contrast and increase the resolution to 0.1"), the detection of this companion would have been impossible with ground based-telescopes. The companion was found to be in a 1200 km circular orbit with a period of 4.7 days. A more detailed discussion of this new satellite is given by Merline et al. in this volume. Adaptive optics is entering a powerful new age as all the major ground based large telescopes are developing facility AO systems. Planetary astronomy is particularly well posed to take advantage of the diffraction-limited, near-IR images (0.050" FWHM) that will become commonplace at all 8 m facilities in the near future (It is already occurring on the KECK and GEMINI-North telescopes). In particular, we review plans for the NAOS/CONICA AO facility instrument at the ESO 8m VLT that will have first light in late 2000. It is planned that NAOS/CONICA will obtain K-band Strehl ratios of 60% with reference objects (extended up to 3") of brightness V=13 (or brighter). The instrument will allow guiding on faint V=15 sources (with Strehls 20 well as tracking planetary targets that have a velocity different from the guide source. The ability to carry out remote service observing and an automatic data reduction pipeline will make the ESO VLT AO system ideal for monitoring temporal changes in planetary targets and carrying out targets of opportunity programs in general. These AO observations were made possible by support from the NSF, NASA, SwRI, and ESO.
Close Laird M.
Dumas Cédric
Merline William Jon
Owen Theodore
Roddier Francois
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