Search of Binary Jupiter-Trojan Asteroids with Laser Guide Star AO systems: a moon around 624 Hektor

Details Search of Binary Jupiter-Trojan Asteroids with Laser Guide Star AO systems: a moon around 624 Hektor Search of Binary Jupiter-Trojan Asteroids with Laser Guide Star AO systems: a moon around 624 Hektor

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.6507m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #65.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.615

Physics

Optics

3

Scientific paper

In 2006, we initiated a search for multiple asteroids in Jupiter Trojan L4 population with Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics (LGS AO) technology on 8-10m class telescopes. To maximize the chance of detecting companion, we prioritized Trojan asteroids that could be member of collisional families in our search (see the PeTrA project and Beaugé and Roig (A&A, 2001)).
Our first night was performed on July 17 2006 UT with the Keck LGS AO system. Twenty targets up to the 18th magnitude in R band were observed mostly in Kp broadband filter with an angular resolution 0.06 arcsec.
Images of 624 Hektor, our brightest target (predicted V=14.4) revealed the presence of a moonlet companion (Marchis et al., IAU, 2006, provisional designation S/2006(624)1) located at 0.36” ( 1150 km) from the primary with a peak SNR 25. The resolved primary has a bilobated shape, but it is unclear if the primary is a contact or separated binary. It can be approximated as an ellipse with major and minor axes 2a = 350 km and 2b = 210 km (108 and 65 milli-arcseconds). The pole solution λ=329°, β=-25° in ecliptic B1950 (Magnusson 1989, and updated table) is in agreement with the observations. Based on the integrated brightness ratio between the moonlet and the primary of about 6.5, the diameter of S/2006(624)1 is estimated to be about 15 km. Additional observations will be recorded using the Keck and Gemini LGS AO system in Aug-Sept. 2006 aiming to estimate the orbit of the moonlet. The conditions of observations seem optimal since the system will be seen pole-on during this period. 624 Hektor is the first binary asteroid found in the L4 point and the first Trojan possessing a moonlet companion.
The result of this campaign of observations, including Aug-Sept. observations, will be discussed.

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