Keck Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics Discovery and Characterization of Large Kuiper Belt Object Satellites
Abstract
We have searched the four brightest objects in the Kuiper belt for the presence of satellites using the newly commissioned Keck Observatory Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics system, discovering three new satellites. Satellites are seen around three of the four objects: Pluto (whose satellite Charon is well-known and whose recently discovered smaller satellites are too faint to be detected), 2003 EL61 (found to have two satellites in non-coplanar orbits), and 2003 UB313 (found to have a single small satellite). Only 2005 FY9, the brightest Kuiper belt object after Pluto, has no detected satellite. The satellites of 2003 EL61, 5.9 2003 UB313 was discovered on 10 September 2005, with a fractional brightness of 1.9
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #207
- Pub Date:
- June 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AAS...207.9809B