Spitzer Thermal Radiometry of Kuiper Belt Objects and Centaurs

Details Spitzer Thermal Radiometry of Kuiper Belt Objects and Centaurs Spitzer Thermal Radiometry of Kuiper Belt Objects and Centaurs

May 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006sptz.prop30081s&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #30081

Physics

Scientific paper

About 10 Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) have been detected at both 24 and 70um with Spitzer at high enough signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to allow determinations of their of their albedos and diameters. While these physical parameters can be estimated from a detection at a single thermal wavelength, they are then subject to large uncertainties stemming from the assumed model for the temperature distribution on the surface. A two-color thermal detection eliminates most of the model uncertainty, and the accuracy of the derived parameters is then limited primarily by measurement and calibration errors. An added benefit of a two-color detection is that it yields some information about the temperature distribution, and therefore about the thermal parameter (or thermal inertia, if the rotation period is known) of the surface materials. We propose to use MIPS to detect 8 KBOs and 8 Centaurs at both 24 and 70um, at SNR > 5 in both bands. We base our predictions of their thermal emission, our sensitivity estimates, and our observing strategy on our past observations of KBOs with Spitzer. Our sample size is chosen to double the sample of both KBOs and Centaurs with two-color data, significantly improving our knowledge of their physical parameters, and providing enough objects to allow us to begin to look for trends in albedo vs. size and color.

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