Photometry of 2006 RH{120}: an asteroid temporary captured into a geocentric orbit

Details Photometry of 2006 RH{120}: an asteroid temporary captured into a geocentric orbit Photometry of 2006 RH{120}: an asteroid temporary captured into a geocentric orbit

Mar 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009a%26a...495..967k&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 495, Issue 3, 2009, pp.967-974

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

5

Techniques: Photometric, Minor Planets, Asteroids

Scientific paper

Aims: From July 2006 to July 2007 a very small asteroid orbited the Earth within its Hill sphere. We used this opportunity to study its rotation and estimate its diameter and shape. Methods: Due to its faintness, 2006 RH{120} was observed photometrically with the new 10-m SALT telescope at the SAAO (South Africa). We obtained data on four nights: 11, 15, 16, and 17 March 2007 when the solar phase angle remained almost constant at 74°. The observations lasted about an hour each night and the object was exposed for 7-10 s through the “clear” filter. Results: From the lightcurves obtained on three nights we derived two solutions for a synodical period of rotation: P1 = 1.375 ± 0.001 min and P2 = 2.750 ± 0.002 min. The available data are not sufficient to choose between them. The absolute magnitude of the object was found to be H = 29.9 ± 0.3 mag (with the assumed slope parameter G = 0.25) and its effective diameter D = 2-7 m, depending on the geometric albedo pV (with the most typical near-Earth asteroids albedo pV = 0.18 its diameter would be D = 3.3 ± 0.4 m). The body has an elongated shape with the a/b ratio greater than 1.4. It probably originates in low-eccentricity Amor or Apollo orbits. There is still a possibility, which needs further investigation, that it is a typical near-Earth asteroid that survived the aerobraking in the Earth's atmosphere and returned to a heliocentric orbit similar to that of the Earth.
Based on observations made with the Southern
African Large Telescope (SALT).

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