Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Size and albedo of Kuiper belt object 55636 from a stellar occultation

Nature volume 465, pages 897–900 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The Kuiper belt is a collection of small bodies (Kuiper belt objects, KBOs) that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune and which are believed to have formed contemporaneously with the planets. Their small size and great distance make them difficult to study. KBO 55636 (2002 TX300) is a member of the water-ice-rich Haumea KBO collisional family1. The Haumea family are among the most highly reflective objects in the Solar System. Dynamical calculations indicate that the collision that created KBO 55636 occurred at least 1 Gyr ago2,3. Here we report observations of a multi-chord stellar occultation by KBO 55636, which occurred on 9 October 2009 ut. We find that it has a mean radius of 143 ± 5 km (assuming a circular solution). Allowing for possible elliptical shapes, we find a geometric albedo of in the V photometric band, which establishes that KBO 55636 is smaller than previously thought and that, like its parent body, it is highly reflective. The dynamical age implies either that KBO 55636 has an active resurfacing mechanism, or that fresh water-ice in the outer Solar System can persist for gigayear timescales.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Light curves for KBO 55636.
Figure 2: Occultation chords and the radius of KBO 55636.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Brown, M. E., Barkume, K. M., Ragozzine, D. & Schaller, E. L. A collisional family of icy objects in the Kuiper belt. Nature 446, 294–296 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Ragozzine, D. & Brown, M. E. Candidate members and age estimate of the family of Kuiper belt object 2003 EL61. Astron. J. 134, 2160–2167 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Schlichting, H. E. & Sari, R. The creation of Haumea's collisional family. Astrophys. J. 700, 1242–1246 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Elliot, J. L. & Kern, S. D. Pluto's atmosphere and a targeted-occultation search for other bound KBO atmospheres. Earth Moon Planets 92, 375–393 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Reitsema, H. J., Hubbard, W. B., Lebofsky, L. A. & Tholen, D. J. Occultation by a possible third satellite of Neptune. Science 215, 289–291 (1982)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Zuluaga, C. A., Bosh, A. S., Person, M. J. & Elliot, J. L. 55636.20091009 Occultation October 09, 2009. 〈http://occult.mit.edu/research/occultations/kbo/55636/55636.20091009/index.html〉 (2009)

  7. Nather, R. E. & Evans, D. S. Photoelectric measurement of lunar occultations. I. The process. Astron. J. 75, 575–582 (1970)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Brucker, M. J. et al. High albedos of low inclination classical Kuiper belt objects. Icarus 201, 284–294 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Bowell, E. et al. in Asteroids II (eds Binzel, R. P., Gehrels, T. & Matthews, M. S.) 524–556 (Univ. Arizona Press, 1989)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Sheppard, S. S. & Jewitt, D. Hawaii Kuiper belt variability project: an update. Earth Moon Planets 92, 207–219 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Grundy, W., Noll, K. & Stephens, D. Diverse albedos of small trans-neptunian objects. Icarus 176, 184–191 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Stansberry, J. A. et al. in The Solar System beyond Neptune (eds Barucci, M. A., Boehnhardt, H., Cruikshank, D. P. & Morbidelli, A.) 161–179 (Univ. Arizona Press, 2008)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Licandro, J. et al. The methane ice rich surface of large TNO 2005 FY9: a Pluto-twin in the trans-neptunian belt? Astron. Astrophys. 445, L35–L38 (2006)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Snodgrass, C., Carry, B., Dumas, C. & Hainaut, O. Characteristics of candidate members of (136108) Haumea's family. Astron. Astrophys. 511, 1–9 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Gil-Hutton, R. Color diversity among Kuiper belt objects: the collisional resurfacing model revisited. Planet. Space Sci. 50, 57–62 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Luu, J. & Jewitt, D. Color diversity among the Centaurs and Kuiper Belt objects. Astron. J. 112, 2310–2318 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Verbiscer, A. J., French, R. G. & McGhee, C. A. The opposition surge of Enceladus: HST observations 338–1022 nm. Icarus 173, 66–83 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Spencer, J. R. et al. in Saturn from Cassini-Huygens (eds Dougherty, M., Esposito, L. W. & Krimigis, S.) 683–724 (Springer, 2009)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  19. Rabinowitz, D. L., Schaefer, B. E., Schaefer, M. & Tourtellotte, S. W. The youthful appearance of the 2003 EL61 collisional family. Astron. J. 136, 1502–1509 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Hobbs, P. V. Ice Physics 1st edn 348 (Oxford Univ. Press, 1974)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Spencer, J. R., Lebofsky, L. A. & Sykes, M. V. Systematic biases in radiometric diameter determinations. Icarus 78, 337–354 (1989)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Brown, M. E. in The Solar System beyond Neptune (eds Barucci, M. A., Boehnhardt, H., Cruikshank, D. P. & Morbidelli, A.) 335–344 (Univ. Arizona Press, 2008)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Gulbis, A. A. S. et al. Charon's radius and atmospheric constraints from observations of a stellar occultation. Nature 439, 48–51 (2006)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. French, R. G. & Gierasch, P. J. Diffraction calculation of occultation light curves in the presence of an isothermal atmosphere. Astron. J. 81, 445–451 (1976)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Rabinowitz, D. L. et al. Photometric observations constraining the size, shape, and albedo of 2003 EL61, a rapidly rotating, Pluto-sized object in the Kuiper Belt. Astrophys. J. 639, 1238–1251 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Brown, M. E. et al. Satellites of the largest Kuiper belt objects. Astrophys. J. 639, L43–L46 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Ragozzine, D. & Brown, M. E. Orbits and masses of the satellites of the dwarf planet Haumea (2003 EL61). Astron. J. 137, 4766–4776 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Fraser, W. C. & Brown, M. E. NICMOS photometry of the unusual dwarf planet Haumea and its satellites. Astrophys. J. 695, L1–L3 (2009)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Schaller, E. L. & Brown, M. E. Detection of additional members of the 2003 EL61 collisional family via near-infrared spectroscopy. Astrophys. J. 684, L107–L109 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Astrodon:. Astrodon astronomy filters. 〈http://www.astrodon.com/products/filters/〉 (2008)

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to W. M. Grundy for supplying HV magnitudes from his database and for discussions of water-ice surfaces in the outer Solar System; to W. B. McKinnon for discussions of the physical state of water-ice at low temperatures; to E. D. Schmidt for use of the telescope and participating in the observations at Behlen Observatory; to B. Carter for help in obtaining telescope time at Mt Kent, and to L. A. Young for assisting with the McDonald observations. We thank D. Byrne of the Visitor Information Station at the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy on Mauna Kea for use of their equipment and facilitating the observations from their site. J.W. thanks E. Gates of Lick Observatory, and E. Becklin, E. Pfueller, M. Wiedemann and M. Burgdort of SOFIA, for support of his observations. B. Sicardy provided several comments that improved the paper. Occultation research at MIT and Williams College is supported by NASA and NSF.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA,

    J. L. Elliot, M. J. Person, C. A. Zuluaga, A. S. Bosh, E. R. Adams, T. C. Brothers, A. A. S. Gulbis, S. E. Levine, M. Lockhart & A. M. Zangari

  2. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA,

    J. L. Elliot

  3. Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA ,

    J. L. Elliot, L. Bright & E. W. Dunham

  4. Southern Africa Large Telescope and South African Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 9, 8935, Cape Town, South Africa ,

    A. A. S. Gulbis

  5. United States Naval Observatory (USNO), Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA ,

    S. E. Levine & T. Tilleman

  6. American Association of Variable Star Observers, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA ,

    S. E. Levine

  7. Physics Department, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267, USA,

    B. A. Babcock

  8. Astronomy Department, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267, USA,

    K. DuPré, J. M. Pasachoff & S. P. Souza

  9. Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Santa Barbara, California 93117, USA ,

    W. Rosing

  10. University of Hawai’i, Hilo, Hawai’i 96720-4091, USA ,

    N. Secrest

  11. Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington DC 20015, USA

    S. S. Sheppard

  12. Department of Geology, University of Hawai’i, Leeward Community College, Pearl City, Hawai’i 96782, USA,

    M. Kakkala

  13. Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, Westford, Massachusetts 01886, USA ,

    B. Berger, J. W. Briggs, G. Jacobson, P. Valleli & B. Volz

  14. Dexter-Southfield Schools, Brookline, Massachusetts 02145, USA ,

    J. W. Briggs

  15. Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mt Stromlo Observatory, Weston Creek, Australian Capital Territory 2611, Australia ,

    S. Rapoport

  16. Mt Kent Observatory, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia ,

    R. Hart

  17. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA,

    M. Brucker

  18. Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal 877, 22800 Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico ,

    R. Michel

  19. IBM, St Leonards, New South Wales 2065, Australia ,

    A. Mattingly

  20. Nompuewenu Observatory, University of Texas Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, Brownsville, Texas 78520, USA ,

    L. Zambrano-Marin

  21. SOFIA, Universities Space Research Association, NASA Ames, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA ,

    A. W. Meyer

  22. SOFIA, Deutsches SOFIA Institute, NASA Ames, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA ,

    J. Wolf

  23. Magdalena Ridge Observatory, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, New Mexico 87801, USA ,

    E. V. Ryan & W. H. Ryan

  24. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA,

    K. Morzinski & B. Grigsby

  25. James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia ,

    J. Brimacombe

  26. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA ,

    D. Ragozzine

  27. Observatorio Astronómico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua, Managua, Nicaragua

    H. G. Montano

  28. Mt John University Observatory, Lake Tekapo 7945, New Zealand

    A. Gilmore

Authors
  1. J. L. Elliot
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. J. Person
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. C. A. Zuluaga
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. A. S. Bosh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. E. R. Adams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. T. C. Brothers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. A. A. S. Gulbis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. S. E. Levine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. M. Lockhart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. A. M. Zangari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. B. A. Babcock
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. K. DuPré
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. J. M. Pasachoff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. S. P. Souza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. W. Rosing
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. N. Secrest
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. L. Bright
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. E. W. Dunham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  19. S. S. Sheppard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  20. M. Kakkala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  21. T. Tilleman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  22. B. Berger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  23. J. W. Briggs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  24. G. Jacobson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  25. P. Valleli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  26. B. Volz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  27. S. Rapoport
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  28. R. Hart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  29. M. Brucker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  30. R. Michel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  31. A. Mattingly
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  32. L. Zambrano-Marin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  33. A. W. Meyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  34. J. Wolf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  35. E. V. Ryan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  36. W. H. Ryan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  37. K. Morzinski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  38. B. Grigsby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  39. J. Brimacombe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  40. D. Ragozzine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  41. H. G. Montano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  42. A. Gilmore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

J.L.E. helped plan the observations, consulted on the occultation prediction, analysed the data, and wrote the paper. M.J.P. organized the observers, performed observations from Brownsville, Texas, and consulted on the prediction, data reduction, text and figures. C.A.Z. analysed the data for the stellar occultation prediction and constructed the light curves. A.S.B. directed the data analysis for the occultation prediction. E.R.A. wrote the light-curve generation software. S.E.L. made astrometric observations and performed observations of the occultation from the USNO in Flagstaff. M.L. designed and built 12 PICO camera systems and attempted observations from Cairns. J.M.P. arranged for observations at several sites and helped to plan the observations. S.P.S. consulted on the design of the PICO. L.B., E.W.D., S.S.S. and T.T. supplied astrometric data for the occultation prediction. D.R. provided information used to derive the geometric albedo of KBO 55636. Authors identified in Supplementary Table 2 were responsible for the observations. All authors were given the opportunity to review the results and comment on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. L. Elliot.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Information and Data, Supplementary Tables 1-5, Supplementary Figures 1-3 with legends and References. (PDF 1244 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Elliot, J., Person, M., Zuluaga, C. et al. Size and albedo of Kuiper belt object 55636 from a stellar occultation. Nature 465, 897–900 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09109

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09109

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing