The color and binarity of (486958) 2014 MU69 and other long-range New Horizons Kuiper Belt targets
Author(s)
Binzel, Richard P
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The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) measured the colors of eight Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) that will be observed by the New Horizons spacecraft including its 2019 close fly-by target the Cold Classical KBO (486958) 2014 MU69. We find that the photometric colors of all eight objects are red, typical of the Cold Classical dynamical population within which most reside. Because 2014 MU69 has a similar color to that of other KBOs in the Cold Classical region of the Kuiper Belt, it may be possible to use the upcoming high-resolution New Horizons observations of 2014 MU69 to draw conclusions about the greater Cold Classical population. Additionally, HST found none of these KBOs to be binary within separations of ~0.06 arcsec (~2000 km at 44 AU range) and Δm ≤ 0.5. This conclusion is consistent with the lower fraction of binaries found at relatively wide separations. A few objects appear to have significant photometric variability, but our observations are not of sufficient signal-to-noise or time duration for further interpretation. ©2019
Date issued
2019-12Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary SciencesJournal
Icarus
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Benecchi, S.D., et al., "The color and binarity of (486958) 2014 MU69 and other long-range New Horizons Kuiper Belt targets." Icarus 334 (2019): p. 22-9 doi 10.1016/J.ICARUS.2019.01.025 ©2019 Author(s)
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1054-1381