• DOI:10.1086/503159
Corpus ID: 17831967

Water ice on the satellite of kuiper belt object 2003 el61

@article{Barkume2006WaterIO,
  title={Water ice on the satellite of kuiper belt object 2003 el61},
  author={K. Barkume and M. Brown and E. Schaller},
  journal={The Astrophysical Journal},
  year={2006},
  volume={640}
}

K. Barkume, M. Brown, E. Schaller

Published 2006

Physics

The Astrophysical Journal

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We have obtained a near-infrared spectrum of the brightest satellite of the large Kuiper Belt object 2003 EL_(61). The spectrum has absorption features at 1.5 and 2.0 μm, indicating that water ice is present on the surface. We find that the satellite's absorption lines are much deeper than water ice features typically found on Kuiper Belt objects. We argue that the unusual spectrum indicates that the satellite was likely formed by impact and not by capture.