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The year 1990 marks end of Pluto-Charon mutual event seasonFrom late 1984 until late 1990, the orbit of Pluto's satellite Charon was sufficiently close to an edge-on configuration, as seen from Earth, to produce transit, occultation, and eclipse events involving the two objects. The systematic observation of these events, each of which offers a unique geometry of Pluto, Charon and shadow, has been used to directly measure several parameters of the system. With data now available from the entire mutual event season, reliable values for the radii of Pluto and Charon can be derived. Pluto's radius is 0.05860 plus or minus 0.00031, in units of Chiron's mean orbital radius, and Charon's radius is 0.03019 plus or minus 0.00066, in the same units.
Document ID
19920003671
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Other
Authors
Tholen, David J.
(Hawaii Univ. Honolulu, HI, United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
October 1, 1991
Publication Information
Publication: NASA, Washington, Reports of Planetary Astronomy, 1990
Subject Category
Astronomy
Accession Number
92N12889
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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