Interferometric Search for Multiplicity of Near Small Asteroids -- Cycle 3 Medium

Details Interferometric Search for Multiplicity of Near Small Asteroids -- Cycle 3 Medium Interferometric Search for Multiplicity of Near Small Asteroids -- Cycle 3 Medium

Jul 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993hst..prop.4669w&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #4669

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #4669

Scientific paper

There is evidence that near-Earth asteroids have undergone a long and violent history of collisions. These collisions have resulted in the fragmentation of the originally condensed bodies and, at least in the case of 1989 PB, have led to the formation of multiple asteroids. Several pairs of meteor craters on the Earth indicate that binary asteroids have collided with the Earth in the last 10 to 300 million years. Satellites of known asteroids offer the only method of accurate determination of asteroid masses and, hence, densities and internal composition. Hence, detailed study of multiple asteroids will contribute to our understanding of the formation of the solar system. We propose to use the unique capabilities of the HST Fine Guidance Sensors to attempt to detect multiplicity of the only two asteroids which present favorable observing circumstances in Cycle 3. This program is different from the planned WF/PC and FOC observations in that the targets we wish to observe are small near-Earth objects as opposed to large main belt asteroids. The FGSs are capable of detecting secondary sources as much as two magnitudes fainter than the primary source with a separation of as little as 20 mas. For the targets selected for this experiment, these instrument limits imply detection limits of companion asteroids as small as 5 km in diameter and separations down to about 10 km.

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