Orbits and Masses of Near-Earth Triples 2001 SN263 and 1994 CC

Details Orbits and Masses of Near-Earth Triples 2001 SN263 and 1994 CC Orbits and Masses of Near-Earth Triples 2001 SN263 and 1994 CC

Jan 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21730601f&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #306.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011

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The existence and prevalence ( 16%) of binary asteroids in the near-Earth population (Margot et al. 2002; Pravec et al. 2006) naturally lead to the search and study of multiple asteroidal systems. Triple systems are known to exist in the near-Earth population, the main belt, and the outer solar system. Among the near-Earth objects, there are currently only two well-established triples, 2001 SN263 (Nolan et al. 2008) and 1994 CC (Brozovic et al. 2009). We are interested in studying these systems to understand their dynamical interactions and to measure their physical properties. The datasets are based on Arecibo and Goldstone radar observations that resolve all components with decameter resolution. Due to the oblateness of the primary body and mutually interacting orbits, it is necessary to employ an N-body approach. After solving for the orbits and masses, we have run extensive stability tests that rule out some of the least-squares solutions. The components of 2001 SN263 have orbital periods of 0.68 and 6.3 days at semi-major axes of 3.8 and 16.8 km, respectively, with low eccentricities. The total system mass is of order 1013 kg and is known to 1% fractional precision. 1994 CC is characterized by orbital periods of 1.2 and 8.3 days, semi-major axes of 1.7 and 6.1 km, and eccentricities of 0 and 0.2. The total system mass is 3 x 1011 kg and is known to 3% fractional precision. For both systems, we find mutual inclinations of order 10 degrees between the orbital planes of the satellites. The expectation of accurate shape models of the primary components (Brozovic et al., in prep.; Nolan et al., in prep.) combined with high-precision astrometry will allow us to perform an in-depth dynamical analysis of these systems. Such an understanding may be applicable to other multi-component or multi-planet systems.

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