THE PUZZLING MUTUAL ORBIT OF THE BINARY TROJAN ASTEROID (624) HEKTOR
- Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043 (United States)
- Astronomical Institute, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague (Czech Republic)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- IMCCE-Obs de Paris, F-75014 Paris (France)
- Department of Astronomy, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
- Flat Wavefronts, Christchurch 8140 (New Zealand)
- Hamanowa Observatory, Motomiya, Fukushima 969-1204 (Japan)
Asteroids with satellites are natural laboratories to constrain the formation and evolution of our solar system. The binary Trojan asteroid (624) Hektor is the only known Trojan asteroid to possess a small satellite. Based on W. M. Keck adaptive optics observations, we found a unique and stable orbital solution, which is uncommon in comparison to the orbits of other large multiple asteroid systems studied so far. From lightcurve observations recorded since 1957, we showed that because the large Req = 125 km primary may be made of two joint lobes, the moon could be ejecta of the low-velocity encounter, which formed the system. The inferred density of Hektor's system is comparable to the L5 Trojan doublet (617) Patroclus but due to their difference in physical properties and in reflectance spectra, both captured Trojan asteroids could have a different composition and origin.
- OSTI ID:
- 22365978
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 783, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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