Search for cometary activity in three Centaurs [(60558) Echeclus, 2000 FZ53 and 2000 GM137] and two trans-Neptunian objects [(29981) 1999 TD10 and (28978) Ixion]
Abstract
We have searched for evidence of a dust coma around three Centaurs [(60558) Echeclus (or 174P/Echeclus), 2000 FZ53 and 2000 GM137] and two trans-Neptunian objects [(28978) Ixion and (29981) 1999 TD10]. Despite the recent discovery of a coma around (60558) Echeclus, none of these objects, observed with a 3.5- and an 8-m telescope, presents any evidence of cometary activity at the time of observation. Upper limits for the Afρ parameters and dust production rates are presented.
Based on observations obtained at the La Silla and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) observatories of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. E-mail: lorin@obs-besancon.fr (OL); rousselot@obs-besancon.fr (PR)- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- April 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.11487.x
- Bibcode:
- 2007MNRAS.376..881L
- Keywords:
-
- Kuiper Belt;
- planets and satellites: individual: (60558) Echeclus;
- planets and satellites: individual: 2000 FZ53;
- planets and satellites: individual: 2000 GM137;
- planets and satellites: individual: (29981) 1999 TD10;
- planets and satellites: individual: (28978) Ixion