BENAVIDEZ , P.

orbit determination of 2001 QW 322 , a Kuiper Belt binary with a very large separation whose properties challenge binary-formation and evolution theories. Six years of tracking indicate that the binary's mutual orbit period is ≈25-30 years, that the orbit pole is retrograde and inclined 50-62 • from the ecliptic plane, and, most surprisingly,...

Icarus, 185, pp. 508-522, http://dx.doi.org./10.1016/j.icarus..07.024

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We report the orbital distribution of the trans-neptunian objects (TNOs) discovered during the Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS), whose discovery phase ran from early 2003 until early 2007. We obtained characterized observations of 321 sq.deg. of sky to depths in the range g ~23.5 - 24.4 AB mag. We provide a database of 169 TNOs with...

We report the orbital distribution of the trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) discovered during the Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS), whose discovery phase ran from early 2003 until early 2007. The follow-up observations started just after the first discoveries and extended until late 2009. We obtained characterized observations of 321...

Astronomical Journal, 137, pp. 4917-4935 (2009)

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Asteroids smaller than 10 km are thought to be rubble piles formed from the reaccumulation of fragments produced in the catastrophic disruption of parent bodies. Ground-based observations reveal that some of these asteroids are today binary systems, in which a smaller secondary orbits a larger primary asteroid. However, how these asteroids...