Projeto Observacional para 2015B - SO2015B-002

Autor: Julio Ignacio Bueno de Camargo
Instituição: ON
e-mail: camargo@on.br

Co-autores:
Roberto Vieira Martins
Felipe B. Ribas
Marcelo Assafin
Jose Luiz Ortiz
Rene Duffard
B. Sicardy
Leonardo Vanzi
Rodrigo Leiva

Título: ToO - Stellar occultations by transneptunians and Centaurs

Resumo: The study of TNOs and Centaurs is important to understand the history and evolution of the outer solar system. Stellar occultations allow the determination of their sizes and shapes with kilometric accuracy (accessing albedo, density), the detection of atmospheres down to pressures of few nanobars, and the discovery of ring systems around these objects. Only space probes can rival such measurements. Recently (project S-015, 2015A), we successfully proposed an EMCCD fast readout camera to SOAR (visitor instrument) to profit from its 4m aperture and sample stellar occultations with both high SNR and high temporal resolution. Here, our goals are: to monitor (with our visitor instrument) Chariklo's rings (that we discovered in June 2013); a follow-up of Pluto's atmosphere (monitoring after NASA's New Horizons flyby in JUL/2015); and to also detect events by other TNOs and Centaurs. For this, we request 4h (12h payback included) in ToO mode. That would allow us to observe up to 4 events in 2015B. Observations would be triggered 2-3 weeks beforehand, as predictions are refined.