THE ESO LARGE PROGRAM ON PHYSICAL STUDIES OF TNOS AND CENTAURS

摘要

Since April 2001 a Large Program for the study of physical properties of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO) and Centaurs is underway at the Paranal (Very Large Telescope VLT) and La Silla (New Technology Telescope NTT) observatories of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. Combining service (SM) and visitor mode (VM) observations multi-wavelength imaging (BVRIJHK fiiters) and low-dispersion spectroscopy is performed in the visible and near-IR on a sample of objects that should allow a better and more consistent taxonomic characterization and classification of these pristine bodies in our solar system. Up to now we observed: 62 objects in BVRI, 23 in JHK, about 13 with visible and about 10 with near-IR spectra. The paper presents the goals of this project, its scientific and organizational implementation. It also describes first results from spectroscopy of these Solar System objects (for results on the photometry see Delsanti et al., these proceedings).