Other
Scientific paper
Aug 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006iaujd..10e..33l&link_type=abstract
Progress in Planetary Exploration Missions, 26th meeting of the IAU, Joint Discussion 10, 21-22 August 2006, Prague, Czech Repub
Other
Scientific paper
We present models of the shapes of four Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) and Trojan asteroid (624 Hektor) as triaxial equilibrium ellipsoids and Roche binaries (Chandrasekhar 1969). Our simulations select those figures of equilibrium whose lightcurves best match the measured rotational data. The best-fit shapes, combined with the knowledge of the spin period of these objects in question, provide estimates of their bulk densities. Three of the KBOs, 2000 GN[171], 20000 Varuna, and 2003 EL[61], are best explained as rotationally deformed ellipsoids with densities approximately 600, 1000, and 2550 kg/m^3, respectively. KBO 2001 QG[298] is best fit as a tidally deformed contact binary with density 650 kg/m^3. Prototype contact binary 624 Hektor is examined in detail, taking advantage of voluminous data published for this object over a range of aspect angles; we estimated its density to be ~2400 kg/m^3. While model dependent, the inferred densities provide invaluable, and otherwise unobtainable, information about the internal structure and composition of these objects.
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