[Previous] | [Session 21] | [Next]

[21.08] Thermal Emission from Two Centaurs and Two Possible Extinct Comets

Y.R. Fernandez, D.C. Jewitt, S.S. Sheppard (UHIfA)

We present size and albedo calculations for two Centaurs (8405 Asbolus and 2060 Chiron) and two retrograde asteroids (2000 HE₄₆ and 1999 LE₃₁). We obtained contemporaneous mid-infrared and optical photometry of these targets, thus allowing us to separate the size/reflectivity ambiguity. These are the first thermal measurements of Asbolus and the two asteroids, and the determination of such fundamental physical properties has been done previously for only a handful of outer Solar System objects. We find that the geometric albedos of the four objects are similar to those of active cometary nuclei, and consistent with the objects' supposed evolutionary connection to that group.