Speckle Camera Imaging of the Planet Pluto
Abstract
We have obtained optical wavelength (692 nm and 880 nm) speckle imaging of the planet Pluto and its largest moon Charon. Using our DSSI speckle camera attached to the Gemini North 8 m telescope, we collected high resolution imaging with an angular resolution of ∼20 mas, a value at the Gemini-N telescope diffraction limit. We have produced for this binary system the first speckle reconstructed images, from which we can measure not only the orbital separation and position angle for Charon, but also the diameters of the two bodies. Our measurements of these parameters agree, within the uncertainties, with the current best values for Pluto and Charon. The Gemini-N speckle observations of Pluto are presented to illustrate the capabilities of our instrument and the robust production of high accuracy, high spatial resolution reconstructed images. We hope our results will suggest additional applications of high resolution speckle imaging for other objects within our solar system and beyond.
Additional Information
© 2012 Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Received 2012 August 16; accepted 2012 September 05; published 2012 October 3. Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil) and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina). The ground-based observations reported on herein were obtained at the Gemini-N observatory as part of Gemini Science Program GN-2012A-DD-8. The authors wish to thank Andy Adamson, Inger Jorgensen, Steve Hardash, Andrew Stephens, Katherine Roth, Jennifer Holt, Jonathan Kemp, Jesse Ball, Tony Matulonis, Harlan Uehara, Cooper Nakayama, Rody Kawaihae, James Franco, Chris Yamasaki, Cy Bagano, Simon Chan, Mike Becher, Tim Minick, Joseph D'Amato, John White, Arturo Nunez, Fred Chaffee, and Nancy Levenson of Gemini-N without whom our visit and results could not have been possible. Bill Merline kindly provided us with the calculated parameters for Pluto and Charon during the time of our observations. We want to extend a special thank you to the anonymous referee whose expertise in Pluto and Charon, as well as their complete review, helped make this a better paper. This research work was partially funded by the NASA Kepler discovery mission.Attached Files
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 35878
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20121207-132651337
- NASA
- GN-2012A-DD-8
- Gemini Science Program
- Created
-
2012-12-10Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)