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October 25, 2000

NAU astronomer sees red
A mystery among giant comets in the outer solar system

Astronomers from Northern Arizona University and the University of
Oklahoma have made a startling find on the ragged edge of the solar
system that may provide an important clue to the origin and evolution
of the solar system.

This discovery is published in the Oct. 26 issue of "Nature."

Stephen Tegler, associate professor of physics and astronomy at NAU,
and William Romanishin, associate professor of physics and astronomy
at Oklahoma, have been using the largest telescope in the world, the
Keck 10-m telescope in Hawaii to measure the surface colors of Kuiper
belt objects, an ancient reservoir of giant comet-like objects at and
beyond the orbits of the most distant planets, Neptune and Pluto.

Tegler and Romanishin find the surface colors of the icy objects to
come in only two colors, red and gray, and the objects that stay the
farthest from the Sun come only in red.

"Our findings are controversial because they are so unexpected,"Tegler
said. "Most astronomers expected the colors of Kuiper belt objects to
be the same."

Kuiper belt objects are thought to have all formed at about the same
extremely large distance from the Sun, about four billion miles away,
and therefore should be made of the same stuff and have the same
colors, Tegler said.

Much closer to the Sun, the asteroid belt marks the boundary between
rocky, inner planets like Earth, and gaseous, outer planets, like
Jupiter.

A change in the surface colors between the rocky asteroids in the
inner and outer belt is easier to explain.

Why red and gray surface colors?

In the darkness of the Kuiper belt where temperatures reach a chilly
minus 380 F, the surfaces of some objects are rich in a material that
strongly absorbs blue sunlight.

Upon reflection, the lack of blue sunlight gives the objects very red
colors. The gray objects contain little or none of the material that
strongly absorbs blue sunlight. Upon reflection, the material on the
surface of these objects does not change the colors in sunlight, and
astronomers refer to the material as gray in color.

Two different surface types is a puzzle.

Romanishin said, "The existence of two surface colors suggests to us
that something important and unexpected happened long ago in the outer
solar system."

The objects are named after the Dutch-expatriate and Arizona
astronomer, Gerald P. Kuiper. In 1950, Kuiper theorized that the Solar
System extended beyond Pluto. In 1992, David Jewitt and Lane Luu,
astronomers at the University of Hawaii, discovered the first Kuiper
belt object. Today there are nearly 400 known Kuiper belt objects that
range in size from small cities to the planet Pluto which is smaller
than the Moon.

Tegler said, "We found patterns that we did not know existed four or
five years ago. Once we understand the patterns, they will give us
additional insight into history of the solar system. What we have now
is the ability to ask more questions."