DELSANTI , Audrey

Understanding how our Solar System was formed 4.5 billion years ago and how it has evolved since represents one of the major challenges of modern astrophysics. The "Extremely Large Telescope" (ELT), currently built by ESO in Chile, will be decisive for unprecedented observations of asteroids, trans-Neptunian objects, and Centaurs as it will...

Trans-Neptunian objects (TNO) represent the leftovers of the formation of the Solar System. Their physical properties provide constraints to the models of formation and evolution of the various dynamical classes of objects in the outer Solar System. Based on a sample of 19 classical TNOs we determine radiometric sizes, geometric albedos and...

The goal of the Herschel open time key programme ``TNOs are Cool!'' is to derive the physical and thermal properties for a large sample of Centaurs and trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), including resonant, classical, detached and scattered disk objects. We present results for seven targets either observed in PACS point-source, or in mini scan-map...

Thermal emission from Kuiper belt object (136108) Haumea was measured with Herschel-PACS at 100 mum and 160 mum for almost a full rotation period. Observations clearly indicate a 100 mum thermal lightcurve with an amplitude of a factor of ~2, which is positively correlated with the optical lightcurve. This confirms that both are primarily due...