تقرير
Keck Near-Infrared Detections of Mab and Perdita
| العنوان: | Keck Near-Infrared Detections of Mab and Perdita |
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| المؤلفون: | Molter, Edward M., de Pater, Imke, Moeckel, Chris |
| المصدر: | Icarus, Volume 405, 2023, 115697, ISSN 0019-1035 |
| سنة النشر: | 2023 |
| المجموعة: | Astrophysics |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: | Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics |
| الوصف: | We report the first near-infrared detection of Uranus's tiny moon Mab, the presumed source of the blue and diffuse $\mu$ ring, using the NIRC2 instrument at Keck Observatory. The detection was permitted by an updated shift-and-stack procedure allowing us to integrate on Mab as it moved across the detector in 23 separate exposures taken over $\sim$2 hours, as well as the very low (0.02$^{\circ}$) phase angle at the time of observation. At this phase angle, Mab has an integrated I/F of 24 $\pm$ 3 km$^2$ at 1.6 $\mu$m and $\lesssim$37 km$^2$ at 2.1 $\mu$m. Comparing these values with Mab's visible reflectance as derived by HST reveals that Mab is spectrally blue; its (0.5 $\mu$m)/(1.6 $\mu$m) color is more consistent with Miranda's value than Puck's value. Mab is therefore more likely a $\sim$6-km radius body with a Miranda-like surface than a 12-km radius body with a Puck-like surface, in agreement with prior work based on infrared upper limits, but we caution that a Puck-like color is only ruled out at the 2$\sigma$ level. We also report the first infrared photometry of Perdita, finding an integrated I/F of 31 $\pm$ 3 km$^2$ at 1.6 $\mu$m. Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, published in Icarus Letters |
| نوع الوثيقة: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115697 |
| URL الوصول: | http://arxiv.org/abs/2307.13773 |
| رقم الأكسشن: | edsarx.2307.13773 |
| قاعدة البيانات: | arXiv |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115697 |
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