Charon's size and an upper limit on its atmosphere from a stellar occultation
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | SICARDY, B. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | BELLUCCI, A. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | GENDRON, E. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | LACOMBE, F. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | LACOUR, S. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | LECACHEUX, J. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | LELLOUCH, E. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | RENNER, S. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | PAU, S. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique [LESIA] | |
dc.contributor.author | ROQUES, F. | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'astrodynamique, d'astrophysique et d'aéronomie de bordeaux [L3AB] | |
hal.structure.identifier | Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers [OASU] | |
hal.structure.identifier | Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux [Pessac] [LAB] | |
dc.contributor.author | LE CAMPION, J.-F. | |
dc.date.issued | 2006 | |
dc.identifier.issn | 0028-0836 | |
dc.description.abstractEn | Pluto and its satellite, Charon (discovered in 1978; ref. 1), appear to form a double planet, rather than a hierarchical planet/satellite couple. Charon is about half Pluto's size and about one-eighth its mass. The precise radii of Pluto and Charon have remained uncertain, leading to large uncertainties on their densities. Although stellar occultations by Charon are in principle a powerful way of measuring its size, they are rare, as the satellite subtends less than 0.3 microradians (0.06 arcsec) on the sky. One occultation (in 1980) yielded a lower limit of 600km for the satellite's radius, which was later refined to 601.5km (ref. 4). Here we report observations from a multi-station stellar occultation by Charon, which we use to derive a radius, RC = 603.6 +/- 1.4km (1sigma), and a density of rho = 1.71 +/- 0.08gcm-3. This occultation also provides upper limits of 110 and 15 (3sigma) nanobar for an atmosphere around Charon, assuming respectively a pure nitrogen or pure methane atmosphere. | |
dc.language.iso | en | |
dc.publisher | Nature Publishing Group | |
dc.title.en | Charon's size and an upper limit on its atmosphere from a stellar occultation | |
dc.type | Article de revue | |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1038/nature04351 | |
dc.subject.hal | Physique [physics]/Astrophysique [astro-ph]/Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO] | |
dc.subject.hal | Planète et Univers [physics]/Astrophysique [astro-ph] | |
bordeaux.journal | Nature | |
bordeaux.page | 52-54 | |
bordeaux.volume | 439, Issue 7072 | |
bordeaux.peerReviewed | oui | |
hal.identifier | hal-00023331 | |
hal.version | 1 | |
hal.popular | non | |
hal.audience | Non spécifiée | |
hal.origin.link | https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr//hal-00023331v1 | |
bordeaux.COinS | ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Nature&rft.date=2006&rft.volume=439,%20Issue%207072&rft.spage=52-54&rft.epage=52-54&rft.eissn=0028-0836&rft.issn=0028-0836&rft.au=SICARDY,%20B.&BELLUCCI,%20A.&GENDRON,%20E.&LACOMBE,%20F.&LACOUR,%20S.&rft.genre=article |
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