The Search for Trojan Binaries

Details The Search for Trojan Binaries The Search for Trojan Binaries

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.6009m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #60.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.538

Statistics

Scientific paper

We report on observations of Jupiter Trojan asteroids in search of binaries. We made observations using HST/ACS of 35 small (V = 17.5-19.5) objects in Cycle 14, without detecting any binaires. We have also observed a few dozen Trojans in our ground-based study of larger Trojans, discovering only one binary. The result is that the frequency of moderately-separated binaries among the Trojans seem rather low, likely less than 5%. Although we have only statistics of small numbers, it appears that the binary frequencies are more akin to the larger Main-Belt asteroids, than to the frequency in the TNO region, which probably exceeds 10%. The low frequency is inconsistent with the projections based on Trojan contact binaries by Mann et al. (2006, BAAS 38, 6509), although our work cannot detect very close or contact binaries. We discovered and characterized the orbit and density of the first Trojan binary, (617) Patroclus using the Gemini AO system (Merline et al. 2001 IAUC 7741). A second binary, (624) Hecktor, has now been reported by Marchis et al. (2006, IAUC 8732). In a broad survey of Main Belt asteroids, we found that, among the larger objects, the binary fraction is about 2%, while we are finding that the fraction is significantly higher among smaller asteroids (and this is even more apparent from lightcurve discoveries). Further, characteristics of these smaller systems indicate a distinctly different formation mechanism the the larger MB binaries. Because the Trojans have compositions that are more like the KBOs, while they live in a collisional environment much more like the Main Belt than the KBOs, these objects should hold vital clues to binary formation mechanics. And because there seems to be a distinct difference in larger and smaller main-belt binaries, we sought to detect such differences among the Trojans as well.

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