Keck Observatory Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics Discovery and Characterization of a Satellite to the Large Kuiper Belt Object 2003 EL61

@article{Brown2005KeckOL,  title={Keck Observatory Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics Discovery and Characterization of a Satellite to the Large Kuiper Belt Object 2003 EL61},  author={M. E. Brown and A. Bouchez and David L. Rabinowitz and Re’em Sari and Chadwick A. Trujillo and Marcos A. van Dam and Randy D. Campbell and Jason C. Y. Chin and Scott K. Hartman and Erik P. G. Johansson and Robert Lafon and David Le Mignant and Paul J. Stomski and Douglas M. Summers and Peter L. Wizinowich},  journal={The Astrophysical Journal Letters},  year={2005},  volume={632},  pages={L45 - L48},  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:119408563}}
The newly commissioned laser guide star adaptive optics system at Keck Observatory has been used to discover and characterize the orbit of a satellite to the bright Kuiper Belt object 2003 EL61. Observations over a 6 month period show that the satellite has a semimajor axis of 49,500 ± 400 km, an orbital period of 49.12 ± 0.03 days, and an eccentricity of 0.050 ± 0.003. The inferred mass of the system is (4.2 ± 0.1) × 1021 kg, or ~32% of the mass of Pluto and 28.6% ± 0.7% of the mass of the… 

60 Citations

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