The Surface of Sedna in the Near-infrared
Abstract
We present a very deep near infrared spectrum of Sedna collected at Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea. Sedna is unique in the solar system as it has the most distant perihelion of any known body, never venturing closer than 76 AU from the sun, or about 2.5 times the distance of Neptune. Thus, of all the known solar system bodies, it has the greatest potential for harboring unaltered material from the epoch of solar system formation. We have collected a ground-based near-infrared spectrum deeper than any other published for a small body, representing about 15 hours of on-source exposure time at an 8-meter diameter telescope in good conditions, more than half of which is in the K-band where volatile ice signatures are strongest. We test the findings of recent works that suggest the surface of Sedna has methane, water and nitrogen ices on its surface, similar to the surface of Triton.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #39
- Pub Date:
- October 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007DPS....39.4906T