Orbits of Binary Near-Earth Asteroids from Radar Observations

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

The orbits of binary systems can be used to determine the masses of the objects. Radar delay-Doppler imaging of near-Earth binary asteroid systems were used to obtain measurements of their densities, using the orbit-derived masses and image-derived sizes. Results are presented for 2003 YT1, 2002 BM26, and 2006 GY2.
Assuming circular orbits of the secondaries, the following orbital periods were derived: 2003 YT1, 36.7 ±1.8 hours; 2002 BM26, either 12.5 ±0.2 or 25.8 ±0.3 and 2006 GY2, 11.7 ±0.2 hours. A large amount of sky coverage had been obtained for 2003 YT1, and its rotation rate had been previously determined by light curve information. These extra pieces of information, along with the use of a modeling program called Shape allowed constraints to be placed on the geometry of the system. From there the mass and volume of the primary were calculated to be (1.27 ±0.39)*10^12 kg and 0.63 ±0.10 km^3, respectively, resulting in a final estimate of the density to be 2.01 ±0.70 g/cm^3.

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