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A new determination of radii and limb parameters for Pluto and Charon from mutual event lightcurvesOver the past several years Pluto-Charon mutual events have yielded progressively more accurate estimates of Charon's orbital elements and the radii of Pluto and Charon (e.g., Buie, Tholen, and Horne, 1992). Analysis of the 1988 stellar occultation by Pluto indicates a radius for Pluto that is about 4%, or 50 km, larger than the mutual event radius of 1151 km. One possible explanation for the discrepancy is that the mutual event modeling treats Pluto and Charon as uniformly bright disks. If they are limb-darkened, the mutual event fits could underestimate their radii. In this paper we use an independent mutual event data set (Young and Binzel, 1992) to fit for Pluto and Charon's radii in a manner independent of either object's limb profile or albedo distribution. Our least-squares solution indicates that Pluto's radius is 1164 +/- 22.9 km and Charon's radius is 621 +/- 20.6 km.
Document ID
19950030754
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Young, Eliot F.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Binzel, Richard P.
(Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA United States)
Date Acquired
August 16, 2013
Publication Date
April 1, 1994
Publication Information
Publication: ICARUS
Volume: 108
Issue: 2, pt
ISSN: 0019-1035
Subject Category
Astronomy
Accession Number
95A62353
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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