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M.A. Barucci (Obs. Paris), H. Boehnhardt, A.C. Delsanti (ESO), L. Barrera (UCNorte, Chile), C. de Bergh (Obs. Paris), K. Birkle (MPIA, Heidelberg), J. Davies (Obs. Edinburgh), A. Doressoundiram (Obs. Paris), E. Dotto (Obs. Torino), O.R. Hainaut (ESO), M. Lazzarin (Obs. Padova), K.J. Meech (IFA, Hawaii), J.L. Ortiz (Inst. Astrofisica de Andalucia, CSIC), J. Romon (Obs. Paris), P. Rousselot (Obs. Besancon), T. Sekiguchi (NOAO, Tokyo), N. Thomas (MPI fur Aeronomie), G.P. Tozzi (Obs. di Arcetri), J.I. Watanabe (NOAO, Tokyo), R. West (ESO)
A Large Program for the study of the physical properties of Trans-Neptunian Objects and Centaurs has been started in April 2001 on the ESO/Very Large Telescopes. This program was awarded observing time for 4 semesters and aims at providing quasi-simultaneous spectro-photometric measurements in BVRI and JHK bands for a large set of objects.
During the first semester, data for 36 objects were collected. We have obtained BVRI photometry with the FORS1 instrument on VLT/UT1 for 29 TNOs and 3 Centaurs, with simultaneous visible spectroscopy for 4 TNOs and 1 Centaur. Concerning JHK photometry, 9 TNOs and 1 Centaur have been measured with the ISAAC instrument (VLT/UT1); of these, we have obtained quasi-simultaneous NIR spectra for 2 TNOs and 1 Centaur. About 300 more hours of observing time have been allocated to this program.
We will present the strategy of this project as well as the first spectroscopic results that have been obtained so far. Results of the visible photometry will be described in more details in another DPS presentation (Delsanti et. al).