Size and albedo of Kuiper belt object 55636 from a stellar occultation (original) (raw)

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to W. M. Grundy for supplying _H_V 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.

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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
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2. M. J. Person
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3. C. A. Zuluaga
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4. A. S. Bosh
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5. E. R. Adams
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6. T. C. Brothers
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7. A. A. S. Gulbis
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8. S. E. Levine
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9. M. Lockhart
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10. A. M. Zangari
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11. B. A. Babcock
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12. K. DuPré
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13. J. M. Pasachoff
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14. S. P. Souza
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15. W. Rosing
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16. N. Secrest
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17. L. Bright
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18. E. W. Dunham
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19. S. S. Sheppard
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20. M. Kakkala
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21. T. Tilleman
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22. B. Berger
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23. J. W. Briggs
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24. G. Jacobson
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25. P. Valleli
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26. B. Volz
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27. S. Rapoport
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28. R. Hart
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29. M. Brucker
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30. R. Michel
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31. A. Mattingly
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32. L. Zambrano-Marin
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33. A. W. Meyer
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34. J. Wolf
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35. E. V. Ryan
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36. W. H. Ryan
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37. K. Morzinski
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38. B. Grigsby
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39. J. Brimacombe
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40. D. Ragozzine
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41. H. G. Montano
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42. A. Gilmore
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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.

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Correspondence toJ. L. Elliot.

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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)

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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

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• Received: 02 February 2010
• Accepted: 16 April 2010
• Issue Date: 17 June 2010
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09109