English

Apache Point rapid response characterization of primitive imminent impactor 2024 RW$_1$

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2025-09-17 v2 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Abstract

Imminent impactors may be detected only a few hours before their impact with Earth, providing a brief opportunity to characterize them before impact. We describe the characterization of imminent impactor 2024 RW1_1, which was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on 2024 September 4 at 05:43 UTC, before it entered the atmosphere near the northern Philippines at 16:39 UTC. We observed 2024 RW1_1 with the Astrophysical Research Consortium Telescope Imaging Camera on the Apache Point Astrophysical Research Consortium's 3.5-m telescope on 2024 September 4 10:16 UTC. We obtained g, r, i, and z photometry of 2024 RW1_1, yielding color indices of g-r = 0.47±\pm0.04, r-i = 0.13±\pm0.04, i-z = -0.11±\pm0.07, and g-i = 0.60±\pm0.04, corresponding to a spectral slope of 0.67±\pm0.40~%\%/100 nm. The closest match to an asteroid spectral type is with B-type asteroids from the C-complex. We detect variations in the time series photometry of the asteroid with an amplitude of \sim0.75, and a double-peaked rotation period of \sim1900 s. Assuming a visible albedo of 0.07±\pm0.03, a density of \sim1500 kg/m3^3, and a calculated absolute magnitude of 30.92±\pm0.05, we estimate that the asteroid has a diameter of 3.3±\pm0.7 m and a total mass of \sim28,000 kg. Comparing our astrometric orbital solutions to NEOMOD3, the most likely source of 2024 RW1_1 is the 3:1 main belt mean motion resonance (77\% probability) followed by the ν6\nu_6 resonance (13\% probability), consistent with its organic B-type nature.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.23736,
  title  = {Apache Point rapid response characterization of primitive imminent impactor 2024 RW$_1$},
  author = {Carl Ingebretsen and Bryce T. Bolin and Robert Jedicke and Peter Vereš and Christine H. Chen and Carey M. Lisse and Russet McMillan and Torrie Sutherland and Amanda J. Townsend},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.23736},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

12 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, submitted to AJ