Occultation/Eclipse Events in Binary Asteroid 1991 VH

Details Occultation/Eclipse Events in Binary Asteroid 1991 VH Occultation/Eclipse Events in Binary Asteroid 1991 VH

May 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998icar..133...79p&link_type=abstract

Icarus, Volume 133, Issue 1, pp. 79-88.

Computer Science

22

Scientific paper

We present the results of photometric observations of the Apollo asteroid 1991 VH. Its lightcurve consists of two components: the first is the rotational lightcurve with period P_s = (0.109327 +/- 0.000003) d and amplitude 0.09 mag, while the second, with period P_l = (1.362 +/- 0.001) d, shows two minima with depth 0.16-0.19 mag, each with a duration of about 0.10 d, and little or no variation at phases between them. We present a model of the occulting/eclipsing binary asteroid with the secondary-to-primary diameter ratio d_s/d_p = 0.40 that explains the observed lightcurve. In this model, the primary's rotation is not synchronized with the orbital motion and produces the short-period lightcurve component (P_s). The orbital period is P_l. The mutual orbit's semimajor axis is estimated to be a = (2.7 +/- 0.3) d_p; the eccentricity is 0.07 +/- 0.02. The similarity between the lightcurve of 1991 VH and those of 1994 AW_1 (Pravec and Hahn, Icarus 127, 431, 1997) and (3671) Dionysus (Mottola et al. 1997, IAU Circular 6680) suggests that binary asteroids may be common among near-Earth asteroids. Based on the three known cases, we tentatively derive some typical characteristics of this new class of asteroids. They are mostly consistent with the hypothesis that binary asteroids are generated by tidal disruptions of weak, gravitationally bound aggregates (so-called ``rubble piles'') during encounters with the Earth (Bottke and Melosh, Nature 281, 51, 1996). A possible relationship between the population of binary asteroids and the belt of small near-Earth asteroids is discussed.

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