Physical Characterization of Near-Earth Object 3988 (1986 LA)

Details Physical Characterization of Near-Earth Object 3988 (1986 LA) Physical Characterization of Near-Earth Object 3988 (1986 LA)

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21943215t&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #432.15

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Near-Earth Object (NEO) 3988 (1986 LA) was discovered photographically by Glo Helin and colleagues with the 1.2-m Schmidt at Palomar (Helin et al. 1986: IAU Circ. 4228). With a perihelion distance q = 1.055 AU, 1986 LA is an Amor-type NEO. The spacecraft rendezvous potential of any small solar system body can be quantified, to first order, by the dV required to match the target's orbit. Using the method described by Shoemaker & Helin (1978; N7829022) and assuming a massless rendezvous target, a dV of 6.29 km/s is required to reach the orbit of Mars. Objects with dV < 6.29 km/s can therefor be considered low-dV targets: 1791 NEOs meet this criteria. 1986 LA has a dV of 5.84 km/s. With an absolute magnitude H = 17.7 (Lowell Astorb Database), the object is in the top 0.985 percentile in terms of expected size.
We obtained four nights of Bessel BVRI on 2011 June 14, 15, 16, and 18 at the JPL Table Mountain 0.6-m telescope. Our analysis was hampered by the high density of background stars, the low lunar elongation, and an intermittent tracking error. The rotationally averaged colors were found most consistent with an Ld-type spectral classification (Bus taxonomy), an association obtained through a comparison of our colors with the 1341 asteroid spectra in the SMASS II database (Bus & Binzel 2002). Despite the large error bars in our photometry we are confident that 1986 LA belongs to the S-family of asteroids (Tholen Taxonomy). Assuming a phase parameter G=0.15 and our V-R color, we measured an absolute magnitude HV = 17.97 +/- 0.15 mag, intermediate between the HV = 17.7 mag (Lowell) and HV = 18.2 mag (JPL) database listings.
We observed for 21 additional nights. The pole positions are currently unresolved based on the further observations.

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