Author Topic: Eris occultation in Nature  (Read 5771 times)

Offline vicent_peris

  • PTeam Member
  • PixInsight Padawan
  • ****
  • Posts: 988
    • http://www.astrofoto.es/
Eris occultation in Nature
« on: 2011 October 27 06:08:54 »
Hi,

Today Nature published a letter where I am coauthor about the results of an observation of a star occultation by TNO Eris. You can read the abstract here:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v478/n7370/full/nature10550.html

Dr Jan Fabregat and myself contributed with an observation from the observatory of the University of Valencia. We observed the target star with a 60 cm RC and a Watec videocamera. Finally the occultation band passed across South America, so we didn't see any decrease in brightness of the star here in Spain.

From these observations we conclude that the size of Eris is almos the same as Pluto's. It is also very interesting the measurement of the albedo: 0.96. This means that Eris reflects the light of the Sun as an astronomical mirror.  :D This is surely due to a frozen atmosphere on the surface of the dwarf planet..


Best regards,
Vicent.

Offline Jack Harvey

  • PTeam Member
  • PixInsight Padawan
  • ****
  • Posts: 975
    • PegasusAstronomy.com & Starshadows.com
Re: Eris occultation in Nature
« Reply #1 on: 2011 October 27 07:14:21 »
Wow, getting published in Nature!  Does not get any better than that.  Probably THE most prestigious science journal IMO.  Congrats for sure.
Jack Harvey, PTeam Member
Team Leader, SSRO/PROMPT Imaging Team, CTIO

Offline sleshin

  • PixInsight Old Hand
  • ****
  • Posts: 431
Re: Eris occultation in Nature
« Reply #2 on: 2011 October 27 08:38:49 »
Hi Vicent,

Must agree with Jack, a terrific accomplishment for you and your colleagues. And, a very interesting letter. You should be very proud. Congratulations.

Steve
Steve Leshin

Stargazer Observatory
Sedona, Arizona

Offline alvinjamur

  • Newcomer
  • Posts: 17
    • Al Vinjamur Photography
Re: Eris occultation in Nature
« Reply #3 on: 2012 January 26 21:02:03 »
Congratulations!!!!

- aLV
----

(2c) || (!(2c)) = !?

Offline Lex

  • PixInsight Guru
  • ****
  • Posts: 555
  • We do it at night...
Re: Eris occultation in Nature
« Reply #4 on: 2012 April 22 09:29:10 »
Hi Vicent,

Wow that's worth a big CONGRATULATION!
Nice Interesting writing  ^-^
Clear Skies!!

Lex

______________________________________

AZEQ6 GT, TS UNC 10" f5, ASI1600mm-c

HADSO (Hagen Deep Sky Observatory)20 km W of Luxemburg City

Offline Rory

  • Newcomer
  • Posts: 4
  • the newbiest of newbies
Re: Eris occultation in Nature
« Reply #5 on: 2012 May 02 12:49:03 »
Man, that's amazing! I'm pretty uninformed and even I know that getting published in Nature is a big deal!
Congrats from the bottom of the scientific food chain :D
Forgive my dumb questions. I have no idea what I'm doing at all. Your patience with me is vastly appreciated.
I use the CTIO/Prompt telescopes through Skynet, courtesy of PARI.