[en] We have taken advantage of a stellar occultation by the dwarf planet Makemake on 2011 April 23, to determine several of its main physical properties. We present results from a multisite campaign with 8 positive occultation detections from 5 different sites, including data from the 8-m VLT and 3.5-m NTT telescopes in Chile, which have very high temporal resolution. Because the star was significantly fainter than Makemake (setting a record in the magnitude of a star whose occultation has been detected), the occultation resulted in a drop of just ~0.3 mag in the lightcurves. From the lightcurves we have been able to determine the size and shape of the body, its geometric albedo and constraints on its atmosphere.
Disciplines :
Space science, astronomy & astrophysics
Author, co-author :
Ortiz, J. L.; Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia-CSIC, Solar System Department, Granada, Spain (ortiz@iaa.es
Sicardy, B.; Observatório do Valongo / UFRJ, Brazil
Assafin, M.; European Southern Observatory, Chile
Alvarez-Candal, A.; European Southern Observatory, Chile
Ivanov, V. D.; Observatório Nacional / MCT, Brazil
Camargo, J.; Univ. of Sheffield, UK
Littlefair, S.; Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Chile
Unda-Sanzana, E.; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Astrophysique et traitement de l'image
Jehin, Emmanuel ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Astrophysique et traitement de l'image
Braga-Ribas, F.; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège - CHU > Secteur nettoyage
Lellouch, Emmanuel
Morales, N.
Licandro, J.
Gil-Hutton, R.
Duffard, R.
Colque, J. P.
Tancredi, G.
Manfroid, Jean ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO)
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