ESO Large Program on physical studies of Trans-Neptunian objects and Centaurs: Final results of the visible spectrophotometric observations - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A Année : 2004

ESO Large Program on physical studies of Trans-Neptunian objects and Centaurs: Final results of the visible spectrophotometric observations

Résumé

The Large Program on physical studies of TNOs and Centaurs, started at ESO Cerro Paranal on April 2001, has recently been concluded. This project was devoted to the investigation of the surface properties of these icy bodies through photometric and spectroscopic observations. In this paper we present the latest results on these pristine bodies obtained from the spectrophotometric investigation in the visible range. The newly obtained spectrophotometric data on 3 Centaurs and 5 TNOs, coming from 2 observing runs at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), show a large variety of spectral characteristics, comprising both gray and red objects in the two different populations. A very broad and weak absorption feature, centered around 7000 Å , has been revealed in the spectrum of the gray TNO 2003 AZ84. This absorption is very similar to a feature observed on low albedo main belt asteroids and attributed to the action of the aqueous alteration process on minerals. This process was previously also claimed as the most plausible explanation for some peculiar visible absorption bands observed on 2000 EB173 and 2000 GN171 in the framework of the Large Program (Lazzarin et al. \cite{Lazzarin03}; de Bergh et al. \cite{Bergh04}). This detection seems to reinforce the hypothesis that aqueous alteration might have taken place also at such large heliocentric distances.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
aa0260-04.pdf (287.84 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte

Dates et versions

hal-03742594 , version 1 (08-09-2022)

Identifiants

Citer

Sonia Fornasier, Alain Doressoundiram, Gian Paolo Tozzi, Maria Antonella Barucci, Hermann Boehnhardt, et al.. ESO Large Program on physical studies of Trans-Neptunian objects and Centaurs: Final results of the visible spectrophotometric observations. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2004, 421, pp.353-363. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361:20041221⟩. ⟨hal-03742594⟩
25 Consultations
10 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Mastodon Facebook X LinkedIn More