QUAOAR: A ROCK IN THE KUIPER BELT

Journal Article · Mon May 10 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/714/2/1547· OSTI ID:21448825

Fraser, Wesley C; Brown, Michael E ^[1]

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1. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, MC 150-21. 1200 E. California Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

Here we report Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 observations of the Quaoar-Weywot Kuiper Belt binary. From these observations, we find that Weywot is on an elliptical orbit with an eccentricity of 0.14 {+-} 0.04, a period of 12.438 {+-} 0.005 days, and a semimajor axis of 1.45 {+-} 0.08 x 10{sup 4} km. The orbit reveals a surprisingly high-Quaoar-Weywot system mass of (1.6 {+-} 0.3) x 10{sup 21} kg. Using the surface properties of the Uranian and Neptunian satellites as a proxy for Quaoar's surface, we reanalyze the size estimate from Brown and Trujillo. We find, from a mean of available published size estimates, a diameter for Quaoar of 890 {+-} 70 km. We find Quaoar's density to be {rho} = 4.2 {+-} 1.3gcm{sup -3}, possibly the highest density in the Kuiper Belt.

• OSTI ID: 21448825
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 714, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/714/2/1547; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CAMERAS
MASS
ORBITS
SATELLITES
SURFACE PROPERTIES