B Sicardy, J L Ortiz, M Assafin, E Jehin, A Maury, E Lellouch, R Gil Hutton, F Braga-Ribas, F Colas, D Hestroffer, J Lecacheux, F Roques, P Santos-Sanz, T Widemann, N Morales, R Duffard, A Thirouin, A J Castro-Tirado, M Jelínek, P Kubánek, A Sota, R Sánchez-Ramírez, A H Andrei, J I B Camargo, D N da Silva Neto, A Ramos Gomes, R Vieira Martins, M Gillon, J Manfroid, G P Tozzi, C Harlingten, S Saravia, R Behrend, S Mottola, E García Melendo, V Peris, J Fabregat, J M Madiedo, L Cuesta, M T Eibe, A Ullán, F Organero, S Pastor, J A de Los Reyes, S Pedraz, A Castro, I de la Cueva, G Muler, I A Steele, M Cebrián, P Montañés-Rodríguez, A Oscoz, D Weaver, C Jacques, W J B Corradi, F P Santos, W Reis, A Milone, M Emilio, L Gutiérrez, R Vázquez, H Hernández-Toledo
The dwarf planet Eris is a trans-Neptunian object with an orbital eccentricity of 0.44, an inclination of 44 degrees and a surface composition very similar to that of Pluto. It resides at present at 95.7 astronomical units (1 AU is the Earth-Sun distance) from Earth, near its aphelion and more than three times farther than Pluto. Owing to this great distance, measuring its size or detecting a putative atmosphere is difficult. Here we report the observation of a multi-chord stellar occultation by Eris on 6 November 2010 UT...
October 27, 2011: Nature