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:

The size, shape, density and ring of the dwarf planet Haumea from a stellar occultation

Abstract

Haumea—one of the four known trans-Neptunian dwarf planets—is a very elongated and rapidly rotating body1,2,3. In contrast to other dwarf planets4,5,6, its size, shape, albedo and density are not well constrained. The Centaur Chariklo was the first body other than a giant planet known to have a ring system7, and the Centaur Chiron was later found to possess something similar to Chariklo’s rings8,9. Here we report observations from multiple Earth-based observatories of Haumea passing in front of a distant star (a multi-chord stellar occultation). Secondary events observed around the main body of Haumea are consistent with the presence of a ring with an opacity of 0.5, width of 70 kilometres and radius of about 2,287 kilometres. The ring is coplanar with both Haumea’s equator and the orbit of its satellite Hi’iaka. The radius of the ring places it close to the 3:1 mean-motion resonance with Haumea’s spin period—that is, Haumea rotates three times on its axis in the time that a ring particle completes one revolution. The occultation by the main body provides an instantaneous elliptical projected shape with axes of about 1,704 kilometres and 1,138 kilometres. Combined with rotational light curves, the occultation constrains the three-dimensional orientation of Haumea and its triaxial shape, which is inconsistent with a homogeneous body in hydrostatic equilibrium. Haumea’s largest axis is at least 2,322 kilometres, larger than previously thought, implying an upper limit for its density of 1,885 kilograms per cubic metre and a geometric albedo of 0.51, both smaller than previous estimates1,10,11. In addition, this estimate of the density of Haumea is closer to that of Pluto than are previous estimates, in line with expectations. No global nitrogen- or methane-dominated atmosphere was detected.

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

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

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

Figure 1: Light curves of the occultation.
Figure 2: Haumea’s projected shape.
Figure 3: Haumea’s ring geometry.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. 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 

  2. Brown, M. E. et al. Keck observatory laser guide star adaptive optics discovery and characterization of a satellite to the large Kuiper belt object 2003 EL61 . Astrophys. J. 632, L45–L48 (2005)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. 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  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Sicardy, B. et al. A Pluto-like radius and a high albedo for the dwarf planet Eris from an occultation. Nature 478, 493–496 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Ortiz, J. L. et al. Albedo and atmospheric constraints of dwarf planet Makemake from a stellar occultation. Nature 491, 566–569 (2012)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Stern, S. A. et al. The Pluto system: initial results from its exploration by New Horizons. Science 350, aad1815 (2015)

    Article  ADS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Braga-Ribas, F. et al. A ring system detected around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo. Nature 508, 72–75 (2014)

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Ortiz, J. L. et al. Possible ring material around Centaur (2060) Chiron. Astron. Astrophys. 576, A18 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Ruprecht, J. et al. 29 November 2011 stellar occultation by 2060 Chiron: symmetric jet-like features. Icarus 252, 271–276 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Lockwood, A. C., Brown, M. E. & Stansberry, J. The size and shape of the oblong dwarf planet Haumea. Earth Moon Planets 111, 127–137 (2014)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Fornasier, S. et al. TNOs are cool: a survey of the trans-Neptunian region. VIII. Combined Herschel PACS and SPIRE observations of nine bright targets at 70–500 μm. Astron. Astrophys. 555, A15 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Elliot, J. L., Dunham, E. & Mink, D. The rings of Uranus. Nature 267, 328–330 (1977)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Hubbard, W. B. et al. Occultation detection of a Neptunian ring-like arc. Nature 319, 636–640 (1986)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Gourgeot, F. et al. Near-infrared spatially resolved spectroscopy of (136108) Haumea’s multiple system. Astron. Astrophys. 593, A19 (2016)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Rabinowitz, D. L., Schaefer, B. E. & Tourtellotte, S. W. The diverse solar phase curves of distant icy bodies. I. Photometric observations of 18 trans-Neptunian objects, 7 Centaurs, and Nereid. Astron. J. 133, 26–43 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Lellouch, E. et al. “TNOs are cool”: a survey of the trans-Neptunian region. II. The thermal lightcurve of (136108) Haumea. Astron. Astrophys. 518, L147 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Lacerda, P., Jewitt, D. & Peixinho, N. High-precision photometry of extreme KBO 2003 EL61 . Astron. J. 135, 1749–1756 (2008)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Thirouin, A. et al. Short-term variability of a sample of 29 trans-Neptunian objects and Centaurs. Astron. Astrophys. 522, A93 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Binzel, R. P., Farinella, P., Zappala, V. & Cellino, A. in Asteroids II (eds Binzel, R. P. et al.) 416–441 (Univ. Arizona Press, 1989)

  20. 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 

  21. Carry, B. Density of asteroids. Planet. Space Sci. 73, 98–118 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Stansberry, J. A. et al. Physical properties of trans-Neptunian binaries (120347) Salacia-Actaea and (42355) Typhon-Echidna. Icarus 219, 676–688 (2012)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Chandrasekhar, S. Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium (Dover, 1987)

  24. Holsapple, K. A. Spin limits of Solar System bodies: from the small fast-rotators to 2003 EL61. Icarus 187, 500–509 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Holsapple, K. A. Equilibrium configurations of solid cohesionless bodies. Icarus 154, 432–448 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Rambaux, N ., Chambat, F ., Castillo-Rogez, J. & Baguet D. Equilibrium figures of dwarf planets. In AAS/Division of Planetary Sciences Meeting Vol. 48, abstr. 120.15 (American Astronomical Society, 2016)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Desmars, J. et al. Orbit determination of trans-Neptunian objects and Centaurs for the prediction of stellar occultations. Astron. Astrophys. 584, A96 (2015)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Ortiz, J. L. et al. A mid-term astrometric and photometric study of trans-Neptunian object (90482) Orcus. Astron. Astrophys. 525, A31 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Altmann, M., Roeser, S., Demleitner, M., Bastian, U. & Schilbach, E. Hot Stuff for One Year (HSOY). A 583 million star proper motion catalogue derived from Gaia DR1 and PPMXL. Astron. Astrophys. 600, L4 (2017)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Lomb, N. R. Least-squares frequency analysis of unequally spaced data. Astrophys. Space Sci. 39, 447–462 (1976)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Dumas, C., Carry, B., & Hestroffer, D. & Merlin, F. High-contrast observations of (136108) Haumea. A crystalline water-ice multiple system. Astron. Astrophys. 528, A105 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  32. Benedetti-Rossi, G. et al. Results from the 2014 November 15th multi-chord stellar occultation by the TNO (229762) 2007 UK126. Astron. J. 152, 156 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  33. Duffard, R. et al. Photometric and spectroscopic evidence for a dense ring system around Centaur Chariklo. Astron. Astrophys. 568, A79 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Fernández-Valenzuela, E., Ortiz, J. L., Duffard, R., Morales, N. & Santos-Sanz, P. Physical properties of Centaur (54598) Bienor from photometry. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 466, 4147–4158 (2017)

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  35. Snodgrass, C., Carry, B., Dumas, C. & Hainaut, O. Characterisation of candidate members of (136108) Haumea’s family. Astron. Astrophys. 511, A72 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Karkoschka, E. Comprehensive photometry of the rings and 16 satellites of Uranus with the Hubble Space Telescope. Icarus 151, 51–68 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. French, R. G. et al. Saturn’s rings at true opposition. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacif. 119, 623–642 (2007)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  38. Hyodo, R. et al. Formation of Centaurs’ rings through their partial tidal disruption during planetary encounters. Astrophys. J. 828, L8 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  39. Melita, M. D., Duffard, R., Ortiz, J. L. & Campo-Bagatin, A. Assessment of different formation scenarios for the ring system of (10199) Chariklo. Astron. Astrophys. 602, A27 (2017)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  40. Charnoz, S., Canup, R. M., Crida, A. & Dones, L. The origin of planetary ring systems. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.09741 (2017)

  41. Pan, M. & Wu, Y. On the mass and origin of Chariklo’s rings. Astrophys. J. 821, 18 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  43. Hedman, M. M. Why are dense planetary rings only found between 8 and 20 AU? Astrophys. J. 801, L33 (2015)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  44. Hastings, D. M. et al. The short rotation period of Hi’iaka, Haumea’s largest satellite. Astron. J. 152, 195 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  45. Hamilton Brown, R. Ellipsoidal geometry in asteroid thermal models: the standard radiometric model. Icarus 64, 53–63 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Pinilla-Alonso, N. et al. The surface of (136108) Haumea (2003 EL61), the largest carbon depleted object in the trans-neptunian belt. Astron. Astrophys. 496, 547–556 (2009)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

These results were based on observations made with the 2-m telescope at Wendelstein Observatory, which is operated by the Universitäts-Sternwarte München, the 1.8-m telescope at Asiago Observatory, operated by Padova Observatory, a member of the National Institute for Astrophysics, the 1.3-m telescope at Skalnate Pleso Observatory, operated by the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Science, the 1-m telescope at Konkoly observatory, operated by Astrophysical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the 0.65-m telescope at Ondrejov Observatory, operated by the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the 1.5-m telescope at Sierra Nevada Observatory, operated by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia-CSIC, the 1.23-m telescope at Calar Alto Observatory, jointly operated by the Max Planck Institute für Astronomie and the IAA-CSIC, the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 2-m Liverpool telescope, operated by the Astrophysics Research Institute of Liverpool John Moores University, the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 2.5-m NOT telescope, operated by the Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association, the 1-m telescope at Pic du Midi Observatory, operated by the Observatoire Midi Pyrénées, and the La Hita 0.77-m telescope, which is jointly operated by Astrohita and the IAA-CSIC. J.L.O. acknowledges funding from Spanish and Andalusian grants MINECO AYA-2014-56637-C2-1-P and J. A. 2012-FQM1776 as well as FEDER funds. Part of the research leading to these results received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under grant agreement no. 687378. B.S. acknowledges support from the French grants ‘Beyond Neptune’ ANR-08-BLAN-0177 and ‘Beyond Neptune II’ ANR-11-IS56-0002. Part of the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Community’s H2020 (2014-2020/ERC grant agreement no. 669416 ‘Lucky Star’). A.P. and R.S. have been supported by the grant LP2012-31 of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. All of the Hungarian contributors acknowledge the partial support from K-125015 grant of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH). G.B.-R., F.B.-R., F.L.R., R.V.-M., J.I.B.C., M.A., A.R.G.-J. and B.E.M. acknowledge support from CAPES, CNPq and FAPERJ. J.C.G. acknowledges funding from AYA2015-63939-C2-2-P and from the Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEOII/2014/057. K.H. and P.P. were supported by the project RVO:67985815. The Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley acknowledges a Shoemaker NEO Grant 2013 from The Planetary Society. We acknowledge funds from a 2016 ‘Research and Education’ grant from Fondazione CRT. We also acknowledge the Slovakian project ITMS no. 26220120029.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

J.L.O. planned the campaign, analysed data for the prediction, made the prediction, participated in the observations, obtained and analysed data, interpreted the data and wrote the paper. P.S.-S. helped to plan the campaign, analysed data, helped to interpret the data and helped to write the paper. B.S. helped to plan the campaign, analysed data, interpreted data, and wrote part of the paper. G.B.-R. and D.B. helped to plan the campaign, participated in the observations, and analysed and interpreted data. All other authors participated in the planning of the campaign and/or the observations and/or the interpretations. All authors were given the opportunity to review the results and comment on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. L. Ortiz.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Reviewer Information Nature thanks A. Sickafoose and A. Verbiscer for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher's note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Declination residuals of Haumea astrometry.

The plus symbols show the declination residuals of the observed position of the photocentre of Haumea’s system with respect to the theoretical position in declination, from JPL#81 ephemerides. The residuals are shown versus the date of observation. All of the observations were obtained with the La Hita 0.77-m telescope, as explained in Methods. The thin solid line represents a sinusoidal fit to the residuals, with the period determined from a periodogram analysis that is coincident with the orbital period of the moon Hi’iaka. Outlier values have not been removed. In right ascension we did not detect an oscillating behaviour of the residuals because the orbit Hi’iaka does not extend as much as in declination and the quality of the data was not good enough to show the periodicity.

Extended Data Figure 2 Map of Earth showing the locations of the observatories that recorded the occultation (green dots).

The solid lines mark the limits of the shadow path. Mount Agliale is indicated in blue because the occultation by the main body was not positive there, but the occultation by the ring was detected. The dashed line denotes the centre of the shadow path. Note that Munich corresponds to the location of the Bavarian Public Observatory. The complete names of the observatories can be found in Table 1. The red marks at Trebur and Valle D’Aosta observatories indicate the two closest sites to the shadow path that recorded a negative occultation. The coordinates of Trebur observatory are 49° 55′ 31.5″ N, 8° 24′ 40.6″ E and the coordinates of Valle D’Aosta observatory are 45° 47′ 22″ N and 7° 28′ 42″ E. The shadow motion is from the bottom to the top of the figure.

Extended Data Figure 3 Upper limit on Haumea’s N2 atmosphere.

The black filled circles show the normalized flux from the star plus Haumea, as observed from the Asiago station, which is the one that provided the highest signal-to-noise ratio and enough time resolution to look for a faint atmosphere. They combine ingress and egress data and are plotted against the distance perpendicular to the local Haumea limb, as given by the solution shown in Fig. 2. The horizontal bars associated with each data point indicate the distance interval corresponding to the integration times of each point. The red line shows an example light curve obtained with an isothermal N2 atmosphere at T = 40 K and with surface pressure psurf = 15 nbar (at 3σ-level upper limit for better illustration, because the 1σ-level of 3 nbar would be difficult to notice). The red open circles show the expected flux at each data point after convolution with the finite integration point.

Extended Data Figure 4 Upper part of the ring.

An expanded view of Fig. 3 showing in more detail the events along the upper part of the ring. The best fitting mean ring radius is drawn as a solid curve. The grey area shows the full extension of a semi-transparent 70-km-wide ring that is consistent with the twelve secondary events shown in Fig. 3. The lengths of the red segments indicate the uncertainties stemming from the error bars on the ring timings.

Extended Data Figure 5 Photometric models.

a, Absolute V-band magnitude of the Haumea system as a function of time. Diamonds represent observations and lines are models. The cyan curve represents a model without a ring, the black curve is a model with a 70-km-wide ring and with a reflectivity of I/F = 0.09, similar to that of Chariklo’s main ring. The ring in this model contributes approximately 2.5% of the total flux of Haumea plus Hi’iaka in 2017. The dark blue curve corresponds to a model with a wider (140 km) and brighter (I/F = 0.36) ring, which contributes 20% of the total brightness in 2017. This model can be discarded because it would produce a change in the amplitude of the light curve that is too rapid to be compatible with the observations (see b). b, Amplitude of the rotational light curve determined from the ground for the same three models as in a (using the same colour coding). The diamonds represent observations from the literature1,17 and from this work (for 2017). See Methods for further explanations. Error bars show the errors of the measurements from refs 1 and 17 and from the determination in 2017 from this work, shown in Extended Data Fig. 6.

Extended Data Figure 6 Rotational light curve of Haumea.

The relative magnitude versus rotational phase obtained two days after the occultation with the Valle D’Aosta 0.81-m telescope with no filters is shown. The rotational zero phase was established at the time of the occultation and the rotation period used was 3.915341 h. Superimposed is a fit to the observational data. As can be seen, the absolute maximum in magnitude (absolute brightness minimum) is reached at the time of the occultation (arbitrarily located at a phase of 0 here), which means that the projected area of Haumea was also at its minimum. The continuous line is a fit to the data. The peak-to-peak amplitude of the light curve is 0.25 ± 0.02 mag. Error bars are 1σ.

Extended Data Figure 7 Profiles of the trails of the occultation star in two images.

a, Profile along a central line in the trail of the occultation star (blended with Haumea) in a drifted image taken from Crni Vrh observatory before the main occultation. On the y axis we show the light intensity along the line. The line starts 40 pixels before the beginning of the trail and ends 40 pixels after the end of the trail to show the background level and that the transition from trail to background is not easy to identify. The horizontal line marks the mean intensity of the trail. The thick line represents a profile smoothed with a 10-pixel boxcar to filter the high-frequency noise. The x axis has been translated from pixels to time using the drift speed of 40 arcsec per minute, given the known pixel scale of the telescope. The vertical dashed-dotted lines at 0 s and 300 s mark the start and end of the integration, respectively. The ut at start of exposure was 02:59:19.50. The intensity is basically constant with time. Before 0 s and after 300 s, the line profiles decay to the background level of the image because the pixels there were outside the trail. Hence, before 0 s and after 300 s, the plot does not represent the intensity of the source but the intensity of the background. b, Same as a, but from the image at the time of the occultation. The ut at the start of the exposure was 03:04:50.11. The dashed vertical line at 185 s marks the approximate moment at which the occultation begins. The smoothed curve shows that a clear drop in the signal is produced and lasts until the end of the 300-s integration. ADU, analog-to-digital unit.

Extended Data Table 1 Data on the occulted star
Extended Data Table 2 Timing of the secondary brief occultation events from the different observing sites on 21 January 2017

Related audio

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ortiz, J., Santos-Sanz, P., Sicardy, B. et al. The size, shape, density and ring of the dwarf planet Haumea from a stellar occultation. Nature 550, 219–223 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24051

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24051

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

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