학술논문
Discovery of the Bright Trans-Neptunian Object 2000 EB173
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Ferrin, Ignacio; Rabinowitz, D.; Schaefer, B.; Snyder, J.; Ellman, N.; Vicente, B.; Rengstorf, A.; Depoy, D.; Salim, S.; Andrews, P.; Bailyn, C.; Baltay, C.; Briceno, C.; Coppi, P.; Deng, M.; Emmet, W.; Oemler, A.; Sabbey, C.; Shin, J.; Sofia, S.; van Altena, W.; Vivas, K.; Abad, C.; Bongiovanni, A.; Bruzual, G.; Della Prugna, F.; Herrera, D.; Magris, G.; Mateu, J.; Pacheco, R.; Sanchez, Ge.; Sanchez, Gu.; Schenner, H.; Stock, J.; Vieira, K.; Fuenmayor, F.; Hernandez, J.; Naranjo, O.; Rosenzweig, P.; Secco, C.; Spavieri, G.; Gebhard, M.; Honeycutt, H.; Mufson, S.; Musser, J.; Pravdo, S.; Helin, E.; Lawrence, K.
Source
Astrophys.J. 548 (2001) L243-L248
Subject
Language
Abstract
We describe the discovery circumstances and photometric properties of 2000 EB173, now one of the brightest trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with opposition magnitude m_R=18.9 and also one of the largest Plutinos, found with the drift-scanning camera of the QUEST Collaboration, attached to the 1-m Schmidt telescope of the National Observatory of Venezuela. We measure B-V = 0.99 +/- 0.14 and V-R = 0.57 +/- 0.05, a red color observed for many fainter TNOs. At our magnitude limit m_R = 20.1 +/- 0.20, our single detection reveals a sky density of 0.015 (+0.034, -0.012) TNOs per deg^2 (the error bars are 68% confidence limits), consistent with fainter surveys showing a cumulative number proportional to 10^0.5m_R. Assuming an inclination distribution of TNOs with FWHM exceeding 30 deg, it is likely that one hundred to several hundred objects brighter than m_R=20.1 remain to be discovered.