Astron. Astrophys. 357, L53-L56 (2000)

Letter to the Editor

Infrared spectroscopy of the Centaur 8405 Asbolus: first observations at ESO-VLT ^*

M.A. Barucci ¹, C. de Bergh ¹, J.-G. Cuby ², A. Le Bras ^1,3, B. Schmitt ⁴ and J. Romon <sup>1

1</sup> DESPA, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon Principal Cedex, France
² ESO, Santiago, Chili
³ IAS, Orsay, France
⁴ Lab. Planétologie de Grenoble, Martin d'Hères, France

Received 24 March 2000 / Accepted 20 April 2000

Abstract

Centaurs constitute a separate population of Solar System objects, with orbits crossing one or more of the giant planets' orbits. They are located on unstable orbits with short lifetimes, and are probably transition objects between Trans-Neptunians and short-period comets. We present near-infrared spectroscopic observations of one of the Centaurs, 1995 GO, now named 8405 Asbolus, carried out at the ESO-Very Large Telescope (Mount Paranal, Chile) in May 1999. Spectra obtained in the J, H, and K bands show a rather featureless behavior with, in particular, no detection of H₂O ice.

Key words: book reviews book reviews book reviews book reviews book reviews book reviews

* Based on observations carried out at the European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile (programme 63.S-0200)

Send offprint requests to: M.A. Barucci (antonella.barucci@obspm.fr)

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Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Observations and data reduction
• 3. Discussion and conclusion
• References

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000

Online publication: June 5, 2000
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