``TNOs are Cool'': A survey of the trans-Neptunian region . III. Thermophysical properties of 90482 Orcus and 136472 Makemake

Context. The goal of the Herschel open time programme “TNOs are Cool!” is to derive the physical and thermal properties for a large sample of Centaurs, and trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), including resonant, classical, detached and scattered disk objects.
Aims: Based on observations of two targets we tried (i) to optimise the SPIRE observing technique for faint (close to the background confusion noise), slowly moving targets; (ii) to test different thermal model techniques; (iii) to determine radiometric diameter and albedo values; (iv) to compare with Spitzer results whenever possible.
Methods: We obtained SPIRE photometry on two targets and PACS photometry on one of the targets.
Results: We present results for the two targets, (90482) Orcus and (136472) Makemake, observed with SPIRE and for one of those targets, Makemake, observed with PACS. We adopt p_V = 0.27 and D = 850 km as our best estimate of the albedo and diameter of Orcus using single terrain models. With two-terrain models for Makemake, the bright terrain is fitted by, 0.78 < p_V < 0.90, and the dark terrain 0.02 < p_V < 0.12, giving 1360 < D < 1480 km.
Conclusions: A single terrain model was derived for Orcus through the SPIRE photometry combined with MIPS data. The Makemake data from MIPS, PACS and SPIRE combined are not compatible with a single terrain model, but can be modelled with a two-terrain fit. These science demonstration observations have shown that the scanning technique, which allows us to judge the influence of background structures, has proved to be a good basis for this key programme.

Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.