Discovery of the bright trans-Neptunian object 2000 EB173

Abstract

Discovery of the bright trans-Neptunian object 2000 EB173 (Ferrin, Ignacio; Rabinowitz, David; Deng, Ming; Snyder, J.; Ellman, N.; Vicente, B.; Rengstorf, A.; Depoy, D.; Salim, Samir; Andrews, P.; Bailyn, Charles D.; Baltay, C.; Briceño, César; Coppi, Paolo S.; Schaefer, Bradley E.; Emmet, W.; Oemler, Augustus; Sabbey, Chris N.; Shin, J.; Sofia, Sabatino; van Altena, William F.; Vivas, K.; Abad, C.; Bongiovanni, A.; Bruzual, Gustavo; Della Prugna, F.; Herrera, D.; Magris, Gladis; Mateu, J.; Pacheco, R.; Sánchez, Ge.; Sánchez, Gu.; Schenner, H.; Stock, J.; Vieira, K.; Fuenmayor, F.; Hernández, J.; Naranjo, O.; Rosenzweig, Patricia; Secco, C.; Spavieri, G.; Gebhard, M.; Honeycutt, H.; Mufson, S.; Musser, James A.; Pravdo, Steven H.; Helin, E.; Lawrence, K.)

Abstract

We describe the discovery circumstances and photometric properties of 2000 EB173, now one of the brightest trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with opposition magnitude mR=18.9 and also one of the largest Plutinos, found with the drift-scanning camera of the QUEST Collaboration, attached to the 1-m Schmidt telescope of the National Observatory of Venezuela. We measure B - V = 0.99 ± 0.14 and V - R = 0.57 ± 0.05, a red color observed for many fainter TNOs. At our magnitude limit mR = 20.1 ± 0.20, our single detection reveals a sky density of 0.015 (+0.034, -0.012) TNOs per deg2 (the error bars are 68% confidence limits), consistent with fainter surveys showing a cumulative number proportional to 100.5mR. Assuming an inclination distribution of TNOs with FWHM exceeding 30 deg, it is likely that one hundred to several hundred objects brighter than mR=20.1 remain to be discovered.