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Old 23-04-2007, 02:07 PM
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higginsdj
A Lazy Astronomer

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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Canberra
Posts: 614
OK, based on some physics and what I can gather from your information:

* Semi Major Axis for the parent object = 193au
* Assuming Moon and Planet have same density the Roche Limit of 281,000 km (your 2" estimate of the ring system) means a planet with a radius of 223,016km (3 times the radius of Jupiter) - I'm aware it's a bit of a stretch to assume that an object of this size would have the same density as it's moon(s) so this is just a ballpark figure.
* Assuming that the object does not generate any light itself and based on a low albedo (same as an Asteroid) then an object this size will have an absolute magnitude of -9.1 and at 193AU, an apparent brightness of mag 2.7!

Can you account for why an object so large and relatively close has had no impact on the orbits of 800 currently known TNO's?

Given that the seeing at the 2 sites from which you obtained the reference images are likely to be 3"-4" (regardless of what their pixel scale is) what size does the actual image measure for this planetary disk?

Some advice on measuring an image and detecting an object. A 14" at f/10 is likely to produce a pixel scale of no finer than 0.5"/pixel. However, given the seeing limit (mentioned previously), an object is not going to occupy less then Seeing limit divided by 0.5 pixels in X and Y directions (for my 14" scope example). This is a physical limit. Anything smaller than this, particularly with a sharp increase in brightness to adjacent pixels is not a real object no matter how conveniently located on an image.

Cheers
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