Discovery and Physical Characterization of a Large Scattered Disk Object at 92 au

Gerdes, D W and Sako, M and Hamilton, S and Zhang, K and Khain, T and Becker, J C and Annis, J and Wester, W and Bernstein, G M and Scheibner, C and Zullo, L and Adams, F and Bergin, E and Walker, A R and Mueller, J H and Abbott, T M C and Abdalla, F B and Allam, S and Bechtol, K and Benoit-Lévy, A and Bertin, E and Brooks, D and Burke, D L and Rosell, A C and Kind, M C and Carretero, J and Cunha, C E and Costa, L N da and Desai, Shantanu (2017) Discovery and Physical Characterization of a Large Scattered Disk Object at 92 au. Astrophysical Journal, 839 (1). L15. ISSN 1538-4357

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Abstract

We report the observation and physical characterization of the possible dwarf planet 2014. UZ224 ("DeeDee"), a dynamically detached trans-Neptunian object discovered at 92 au. This object is currently the second-most distant known trans-Neptunian object with reported orbital elements, surpassed in distance only by the dwarf planet Eris. The object was discovered with an r-band magnitude of 23.0 in data collected by the Dark Energy Survey between 2014 and 2016. Its 1140 year orbit has (a, e, i)=(109 au, 0.65, 26 degrees.8). It will reach its perihelion distance of 38 au in the year 2142. Integrations of its orbit show it to be dynamically stable on Gyr timescales, with only weak interactions with Neptune. We have performed follow-up observations with ALMA, using 3 hr of on-source integration time to measure the object's thermal emission in the Rayleigh-Jeans tail. The signal is detected at 7 sigma significance, from which we determine a V-band albedo of 13.1(-2.4)(+3.3)(stat)sys percent and a diameter of 635(-61)(+57)(stat)(-39)(+32)(sys) km assuming a spherical body with uniform surface properties.

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