Search Publications
The Size and Shape of the Oblong Dwarf Planet Haumea
Brown, Michael E.; Lockwood, Alexandra C.; Stansberry, John
We use thermal radiometry and visible photometry to constrain the size, shape, and albedo of the large Kuiper belt object Haumea. The correlation between the visible and thermal photometry demonstrates that Haumea's high amplitude and quickly varying optical light curve is indeed due to Haumea's extreme shape, rather than large scale albedo variat…
Transneptunian Binaries
Noll, Keith S.
The discovery of binaries among the population of transneptunian objects isa landmark advance in the study of this remote region of the solar system.Determination of binary orbits will enable direct determination of systemmasses, fundamental for determination of density, internal structure, and bulkcomposition. The mere existence of binaries with …
HST Photometry of trans-Neptunian Objects
Buie, M. W.; Spencer, J. R.; Cruikshank, D. P. +6 more
From July 2001 to June 2002, an HST snapshot program obtained V, R and I photometry for 72 TNOs. The TNOs were sorted by dynamical class, and Spearman rank correlation statistics were calculated for each combination of color and orbital parameter. No strong correlations were found for the combined sample of TNOs, the resonant TNOs, or the non-reso…
A Determination of The Nuclear Size of Comet Hale–Bopp (C/1995 O1)
Sekanina, Z.
The signal of the nucleus was digitally extracted from six images of the innermost coma of this comet, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 in the planetary mode between October 23, 1995 and October 17, 1996. Two different anisotropic, power-type laws were used to filter out the contribution from the dust coma: …
Detection of a Satellite Orbiting The Nucleus of Comet Hale–Bopp (C/1995 O1)
Sekanina, Z.
This paper reports on the detection of a satellite around the principal nucleus of comet Hale-Bopp. As shown elsewhere, a successful morphological model for the comet's dust coma necessitates the postulation of overlapping jet activity from a comet pair. The satellite has been detected digitally on images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wi…
Ultraviolet observations of comet Hale-Bopp
Feldman, Paul D.
Ultraviolet spectroscopy and imaging of comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) were obtained from a variety of space platforms from shortly after the discovery of the comet through perihelion passage. Observations with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spanned the range of 6.8 to 2.7 AU pre-perihelion, but IUE …
NICMOS/HST Post-Perihelion Images of Comet Hale-Bopp in Outburst
Spinrad, H.; Schneider, G.; McCarthy, D. +5 more
Near-infrared images of comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) were obtained from NICMOS/HST on UT August 27–28, 1997, when the comet emerged from the 50 degree solar elongation limit at 2.99 AU from Earth. Diffraction-limited images were obtained with camera 2 filters centered at 1.87, 1.90, 2.04 and 2.22 µm with ∼0.2″ resolution (0.076″/pixel; 165 km…
Unusual Comets (?) as Observed from the Hubble Space Telescope
Weaver, Harold A.; Meech, Karen J.
In separate projects, the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to assess the nature of 3 unusual objects: Chiron, Pholus and P/Shoemaker-Levy 9. This paper will compare these objects and discuss how the unique capabilities of the HST may be used to address the issue of cometary activity in each. Chiron, which has exhibited obvious cometary charact…
High Resolution Imaging of Pluto and Charon with the Faint Object Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope
Albrecht, R.
Images of the Pluto-Charon system were obtained with the Faint Object Camera (FOC) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) with the aim of determination of radii, fluxes, and albedos. The resolution of the already diffraction limited images was further improved by image restoration, yielding indications of surface albedo distributions which are qualit…