English

Fast Rotation of a Sub-km-sized Near-Earth Object 2011 XA3

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2015-06-19 v1

Abstract

We present lightcurve observations and their multiband photometry for near-Earth object (NEO) 2011 XA3. The lightcurve has shown a periodicity of 0.0304 +- 0.0003 day (= 43.8 +- 0.4 min). The fast rotation shows that 2011 XA3 is in a state of tension (i.e. a monolithic asteroid) and cannot be held together by self-gravitation. Moreover, the multiband photometric analysis indicates that the taxonomic class of 2011 XA3 is S-complex, or V-type. Its estimated effective diameter is 225 +- 97 m (S-complex) and 166 +- 63 m (V-type), respectively. Therefore, 2011 XA3 is a candidate for the second-largest fast-rotating monolithic asteroid. Moreover, the orbital parameters of 2011 XA3 are apparently similar to those of NEO (3200) Phaethon but F/B-type. We computed the orbital evolutions of 2011 XA3 and Phaethon. However, the results of the computation and distinct taxonomy indicate that neither of the asteroids is of common origin.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1403.6680,
  title  = {Fast Rotation of a Sub-km-sized Near-Earth Object 2011 XA3},
  author = {S. Urakawa and K. Ohtsuka and S. Abe and T. Ito and T. Nakamura},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1403.6680},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

28 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables. Accepted in AJ