Discovery of the Bright Trans-Neptunian Object 2000 EB173
/ Authors
I. Ferrín, D. Rabinowitz, B. Schaefer, J. Snyder, N. Ellman, B. Vicente, A. Rengstorf, D. DePoy, S. Salim, P. Andrews
and 38 more authors
C. Bailyn, C. Baltay, C. Briceño, P. Coppi, M. Deng, W. Emmet, A. Oemler, C. Sabbey, J. Shin, S. Sofia, W. V. van Altena, K. Vivas, C. Abad, A. Bongiovanni, G. Bruzual, F. della Prugna, D. Herrera, G. Magris, J. Mateu, R. Pacheco, G. Sánchez, G. Sánchez, H. Schenner, J. Stock, K. Vieira, F. Fuenmayor, J. Hernández, O. Naranjo, P. Rosenzweig, C. Secco, G. Spavieri, M. Gebhard, K. Honeycutt, S. Mufson, J. Musser, S. Pravdo, E. Helin, K. Lawrence
/ Abstract
We describe the discovery circumstances and photometric properties of 2000 EB173, now one of the brightest trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with opposition magnitude mR = 18.9 and also one of the largest Plutinos, found with the drift-scanning camera of the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team, attached to the 1 m Schmidt telescope of the National Observatory of Venezuela. We measure B-V = 0.99 ± 0.14 and V-R = 0.57 ± 0.05, a red color observed for many fainter TNOs. At our magnitude limit mR = 20.1 ± 0.20, our single detection reveals a sky density of 0.015 TNOs per square degree (the error bars are 68% confidence limits), consistent with fainter surveys showing a cumulative number proportional to 10. Assuming an inclination distribution of TNOs with FWHM exceeding 30°, it is likely that 100 to several hundred objects brighter than mR = 20.1 remain to be discovered.
Journal: The Astrophysical Journal Letters
DOI: 10.1086/319109