2005/02/10 by W. M. Grundy, Keith Noll, K. S. Noll +2 · 4 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Planetary Science and Exploration #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2005.01.007
27 manuscript pages including 1 figure
arxiv created 2005/02/10 · openalex publication_date 2005/03/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Discovery of transneptunian object (TNO) satellites and determination of their orbits has recently enabled estimation of the size and albedo of several small TNOs, extending the size range of objects having known size and albedo down into the sub-100 km range. In this paper we compute albedo and size estimates or limits for 20 TNOs, using a consistent method for all binary objects and a consistent method for all objects having reported thermal fluxes. As is true for larger TNOs, the small objects show a remarkable diversity of albedos. Although the sample is limited, there do not yet appear to be any trends relating albedo to other observable properties or to dynamical class, with the possible exception of inclination. The observed albedo diversity of TNOs has important implications for computing the size-frequency distribution, the mass, and other global properties of the Kuiper belt derived from observations of objects' apparent magnitudes and may also point the way toward an improved compositional taxonomy based on albedo in addition to color.