Bibcode
DOI
Ferrin, Ignacio; Rabinowitz, D.; Schaefer, B.; Snyder, J.; Ellman, N.; Vicente, B.; Rengstorf, A.; Depoy, D.; Salim, S.; Andrews, P.; Bailyn, C.; Baltay, C.; Briceno, C.; Coppi, P.; Deng, M.; Emmet, W.; Oemler, A.; Sabbey, C.; Shin, J.; Sofia, S.; van Altena, W.; Vivas, K.; Abad, C.; Bongiovanni, A.; Bruzual, G.; Della Prugna, F.; Herrera, D.; Magris, G.; Mateu, J.; Pacheco, R.; Sánchez, Ge.; Sánchez, Gu.; Schenner, H.; Stock, J.; Vieira, K.; Fuenmayor, F.; Hernandez, J.; Naranjo, O.; Rosenzweig, P.; Secco, C.; Spavieri, G.; Gebhard, M.; Honeycutt, K.; Mufson, S.; Musser, J.; Pravdo, S.; Helin, E.; Lawrence, K.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 548, Issue 2, pp. L243-L247.
Advertised on:
2
2001
Journal
Citations
20
Refereed citations
17
Description
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+0.034-0.012 TNOs per square
degree (the error bars are 68% confidence limits), consistent with
fainter surveys showing a cumulative number proportional to
100.5mR. 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.