1. Centaurs and Scattered Disk Objects in the Thermal Infrared: Analysis of WISE/NEOWISE Observations
- Author
-
Bauer, James M., Grav, Tommy, Blauvelt, Erin, Mainzer, A. K., Masiero, Joseph R., Stevenson, Rachel, Kramer, Emily, Fern��ndez, Yan R., Lisse, C. M., Cutri, Roc M., Weissman, Paul R., Dailey, John W., Masci, Frank J., Walker, Russel, Waszczak, Adam, Nugent, Carrie R., Meech, Karen J., Lucas, Andrew, Pearman, George, Wilkins, Ashlee, Watkins, Jessica, Kulkarni, Shrinivas, Wright, Edward L., WISE, the, and Teams, PTF
- Subjects
Physics ,Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) ,Thermal infrared ,Infrared ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Centaur ,Albedo ,Power law ,Data set ,Space and Planetary Science ,Thermal ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) observed 52 Centaurs and Scattered Disk Objects in the thermal infrared, including the 15 discoveries that were new. We present analyses of these observations to estimate sizes and mean optical albedos. We find mean albedos of 0.08 +/- 0.04 for the entire data set. Thermal fits yield average beaming parameters of 0.9 +/- 0.2 that are similar for both SDO and Centaur sub-classes. Biased cumulative size distributions yield size-frequency distribution power law indices ~ -1.7 +/- 0.3. The data also reveal a relation between albedo and color at the 3-sigma level. No significant relation between diameter and albedos is found., Comment: Accepted by ApJ, not proofed. 4 Tables, 8 Figures
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF