“TNOs are Cool”: A survey of the trans-Neptunian region

Abstract

Context. The goal of the Herschel open time programme “TNOs are Cooll” is to derive the physical and thermal properties for a large sample of Centaurs, and trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), including resonant, classical, detached and scattered disk objects. Aims. Based on observations of two targets we tried (i) to optimise the SPIRE observing technique for faint (close to the background confusion noise), slowly moving targets; (ii) to test different thermal model techniques; (iii) to determine radiometric diameter and albedo values; (iv) to compare with Spitzer results whenever possible. Methods. We obtained SPIRE photometry on two targets and PACS photometry on one of the targets. Results. We present results for the two targets, (90482) Orcus and (136472) Makemake, observed with SPIRE and for one of those targets, Makemake, observed with PACS. We adopt pv = 0.27 and D = 850 km as our best estimate of the albedo and diameter of Orcus using single terrain models. With two-terrain models for Makemake, the bright terrain is fitted by, 0.78 \textless pv \textless 0.90, and the dark terrain 0.02 \textless pv \textless 0.12, giving 1360 \textless D \textless 1480 km. Conclusions. A single terrain model was derived for Orcus through the SPIRE photometry combined with MIPS data. The Makemake data from MIPS, PACS and SPIRE combined are not compatible with a single terrain model, but can be modelled with a two-terrain fit. These science demonstration observations have shown that the scanning technique, which allows us to judge the influence of background structures, has proved to be a good basis for this key programme.