Stellar Occultations by TNOs: the January 08, 2011 by (208996) 2003 AZ84 and the May 04, 2011 by (50000) Quaoar

Abstract

Between February 2010 and May 2011, our group has observed five stellar occultations by Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), giving the size and shape for some of the biggest TNO’s: Varuna, Eris, 2003 AZ84, Makemake and Quaoar. Here we present two of them: the January 08 stellar occultation by 2003 AZ84, and the May 04 by Quaoar. For the event of 2003 AZ84 we obtained one positive and another negative occultation chords in Chile. We give a lower limit to the diameter of the TNO. The event of Quaoar was observed from 16 sites distributed in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Five of them yielded positive detection of the occultation. A preliminary analysis shows that the body is probably elongated and significantly bigger than the size determined by Fraser & Brown 2010, with a diameter of 890km. Using the size determined by the occultation, we will discuss the implications for the body density and albedo determination. The upper limit of the atmosphere is also studied.