2003 EL61 -- the squashed football
2003 EL61 is
one of the brightest objects in the solar system beyond Neptune
(only Pluto and 2003 FY5 are brighter). It is one of the Pluto-scale
objects we recently discovered using the Palomar-Quest camera (along
with 2003
UB313 (Eris) and 2005FY9). Our follow-up observations with the SMARTS 1.3m
telescope in Chile show that it is rotating extremely rapidly, once
every 4 hours. We
believe that rotation has stretched the body into the shape of a
squashed football. We
also know that the body has a small satellite whose orbit we have
determined. From the combined observations, we are able to constrain
the shape, size, density, and reflectivity of 2003 EL61.
