Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T10:09:50.481Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Observing mutual events of the trans-Neptunian object Haumea and Namaka from Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2010

Alexandre Bortoletto  and
Roberto K. Saito
Alexandre Bortoletto
Affiliation:
Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia, Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica, R. Estados Unidos, 154, Itajubá, MG, CEP: 37504-364, Brazil e-mail: [email protected]
Roberto K. Saito
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Departamento Astronomia y Astrofisica, Office 206, Campus San Joaquin, Vicuna Mackenna 4860, Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile e-mail: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

By pure coincidence, for the next few years the orbit of the satellite Namaka around the dwarf planet Haumea (formerly 2003 EL61) is nearly edge-on to our line-of-sight. This type of configuration does not last for long, because as Haumea travels around the sun in its 283 year orbit, we continuously see the Haumean system from different angles. It is only edge-on at the angle we see right now, and at the angle it will again be in 141 years – half of a Haumean year from now. In addition to being an interesting coincidence, the fact that the orbit of Namaka is nearly edge-on provides the opportunity to obtain an enormous amount of information about the Haumean system. We present measurements of the timing of these events observed from Laboratrio Nacional de Astrofsica (LNA), partner in an international campaign to observe these events from the most suitable mid-sized telescopes.

Keywords

Kuiper Beltplanets and satellites: fundamental parametersmethods: data analysis
Type
Poster Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S269: Galileo's Medicean Moons: their impact on 400 years of discovery , January 2010 , pp. 189 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

References

Ragozzine, D. & Brown, M. E. 2009, AJ, 137, 4766CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabrycky, D. C., Holman, M. J., Ragozzine, D., Brown, M. E., Lister, T. A., Terndrup, D. M., Djordjevic, J., Young, E. F., Young, L. A., & Howell, R. R. 2008, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 40, 462Google Scholar
Schaller, E. L. & Brown, M. E. 2008, ApJ, 684L, 107CrossRefGoogle Scholar