The Mass of Dwarf Planet Eris
Abstract
The discovery of dwarf planet Eris was followed shortly by the discovery of its satellite, Dysnomia, but the satellite orbit, and thus the system mass, was not known. New observations with the Keck Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescopes show that Dysnomia has a circular orbit with a radius of 37,350 ± 140 (1-σ) kilometers and a 15.774 ± 0.002 day orbital period around Eris. These orbital parameters agree with expectations for a satellite formed out of the orbiting debris left from a giant impact. The mass of Eris from these orbital parameters is 1.67 × 1022 ± 0.02 × 1022 kilograms, or 1.27 ± 0.02 that of Pluto.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Supplementary Material
File (brown.som.pdf)
- Download
- 150.79 KB
References
1
M. E. Brown, C. A. Trujillo, D. L. Rabinowitz, Astrophys. J.635, L97 (2005).
2
F. Bertoldi, W. Altenhoff, A. Weiss, K. M. Menten, C. Thum, Nature439, 563 (2006).
3
M. E. Brown, E. L. Schaller, H. G. Roe, D. L. Rabinowitz, C. A. Trujillo, Astrophys. J.643, L61 (2006).
4
M. E. Brown et al., Astrophys. J.639, L43 (2006).
5
P. L. Wizinowich et al., Pub. Astron. Soc. Pacific118, 297 (2006).
6
Materials and methods are available on Science Online.
7
P. Goldreich, Y. Lithwick, R. Sari, Nature420, 643 (2002).
8
R. M. Canup, Science307, 546 (2005).
9
M. W. Buie, W. M. Grundy, E. F. Young, L. A. Young, S. A. Stern, Astron. J.132, 290 (2006).
10
B. A. Smith et al., Science246, 1422 (1989).
11
D. L. Rabinowitz et al., Astrophys. J.639, 1238 (2006).
12
D. C. Jewitt, S. S. Sheppard, Astron. J.123, 2110 (2002).
13
J. A. Stansberry et al., Astrophys. J.643, 556 (2006).
14
W. B. McKinnon, J. I. Lunine, D. Banfield, in Neptune and Triton, D. P. Cruikshank, Ed. (Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson, 1995), pp. 807–878.
15
This research is supported by a Presidential Early Career Award to M.E.B. In addition, E.L.S. is supported by a NASA graduate student research fellowship. We thank J. Aycock, R. Campbell, A. Conrad, K. Grace, J. Lyke, C. Melcher, C. Sorenson, M. van Dam, and C. Wilburn at Keck Observatory, without whom these complicated LGS AO observations would not have been possible.
(0)eLetters
eLetters is a forum for ongoing peer review. eLetters are not edited, proofread, or indexed, but they are screened. eLetters should provide substantive and scholarly commentary on the article. Embedded figures cannot be submitted, and we discourage the use of figures within eLetters in general. If a figure is essential, please include a link to the figure within the text of the eLetter. Please read our Terms of Service before submitting an eLetter.
Log In to Submit a ResponseNo eLetters have been published for this article yet.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Science
Volume 316 | Issue 5831
15 June 2007
15 June 2007
Copyright
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 29 December 2006
Accepted: 14 March 2007
Published in print: 15 June 2007
Notes
Supporting Online Material
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/316/5831/1585/DC1
Materials and Methods
SOM Text
Tables S1 and S1
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Usage
Altmetrics
Citations
Cite as
- Michael E. Brown,
- Emily L. Schaller
Export citation
Select the format you want to export the citation of this publication.
Cited by
- Tidally locked rotation of the dwarf planet (136199) Eris discovered via long-term ground-based and space photometry, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 669, (L3), (2023).https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202245234
- Cryovolcanism in the Solar System and beyond: Considerations on Energy Sources, Geological Aspects, and Astrobiological Perspectives, Astronomy and Planetary Science - From Cryovolcanism to Black Holes and Galactic Evolution, (2022).https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105067
- On the Structure and Long-term Evolution of Ice-rich Bodies, The Astrophysical Journal, 927, 2, (178), (2022).https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac4962
- The IAU working definition of an exoplanet, New Astronomy Reviews, 94, (101641), (2022).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2022.101641
- Hyperbolic comets as an indicator of a hypothetical planet 9 in the solar system, Advances in Space Research, 69, 8, (3182-3203), (2022).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2022.02.001
- The Planetary Vaporization Event Hypothesis: Supercharging Earth’s Geothermal Core, Identifying Side Effects Blast Patterns, and Inferring how to Find Earth-Like Planets or Identifying Super Charged Geothermal Cores and their Byproduct Blast Patterns, International Letters of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, 87, (1-21), (2021).https://doi.org/10.56431/p-t84wz4
- One of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog, The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 257, 2, (42), (2021).https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ac168a
- Analysis of Tidal Accelerations in the Solar System and in Extrasolar Planetary Systems, Applied Sciences, 11, 18, (8624), (2021).https://doi.org/10.3390/app11188624
- Geologically Diverse Pluto and Charon: Implications for the Dwarf Planets of the Kuiper Belt, Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 49, 1, (173-200), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-071720-051448
- The Eris/Dysnomia system I: The orbit of Dysnomia, Icarus, 355, (114130), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2020.114130
- See more
Loading...
View Options
Check Access
Log in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS Members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
- Become a AAAS Member
- Activate your AAAS ID
- Purchase Access to Other Journals in the Science Family
- Account Help
Log in via OpenAthens.
Log in via Shibboleth.
More options
Register for free to read this article
As a service to the community, this article is available for free. Login or register for free to read this article.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.