DPS 2001 meeting, November 2001
Session 12. Kuiper Belt and KBOs Posters
Displayed, 9:00am Tuesday - 3:00pm Saturday, Highlighted, Tuesday, November 27, 2001, 5:00-7:00pm, French Market Exhibit Hall

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[12.04] KBOs BVRI photometry with ESO/Very Large Telescopes

A.C. Delsanti, H. Boehnhardt (ESO), L. Barrera (UCNorte, Chile), O.R. Hainaut (ESO)

We present visible (BVRI) photometric measurements of about 50~Kuiper Belt Objects, obtained with the FORS1/FORS2 instruments on the ESO/8m Very Large Telescopes. These measurements were performed during runs in September and November 2000, and in the framework of the ESO TNOs Large Program which started in April 2001. This program aims at providing simultaneous spectro-photometric measurements of KBOs in the visible and Near-IR wavelengths.

The objects display a broad and continuous distribution of colors ranging from neutral-bluish to very red, with no evidence for bimodality. In color-color diagrams, the objects are all found very close to the ``reddening line'' which is defined as the locus of objects with linear reflectivity spectrum. We will discuss the distribution of the objects in the color-color plots, as well as the general trends in the shape of reflectivity spectra. Outliers and variable objects will be highlighted.


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