Rotation Properties of Small Jovian Trojan Asteroids
Abstract
Jovian Trojan asteroids are of interest both as objects in their own right (we have no spectral analogs among meteorite samples) and as possible relics of Solar System formation. Asteroid lightcurves can give information about processes that have affected a group of asteroids; they can also give information about the density of the objects when enough lightcurves have been collected. We have been carrying out a survey of Trojan lightcurve properties for comparison with small asteroids and with comets. In a recent paper (French et al. 2015) we presented evidence that a significant number of Trojans have rotation periods greater than 24 hours. We will report our latest results and compare them with results of sparsely-sampled lightcurves from the Palomar Transient Factory (Waszczak et al. 2015). LF, RS, and DR were visiting astronomers at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, operated by AURA under contract with the NSF, and with the SMARTS Consortium at CTIO. This research was sponsored by NSF Planetary Astronomy grant 1212115.ReferencesFrench, L.M. et al. 2015. Icarus 254, pp. 1-17.Waszczak, A. et al. 2015. A.J. 150, Issue 3, I.D. 35.
- Publication:
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AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #48
- Pub Date:
- October 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016DPS....4820801F