English

Physical characterization of NEA Large Super-Fast Rotator (436724) 2011 UW158

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2019-04-15 v1

Abstract

Asteroids of size larger than 0.15 km generally do not have periods smaller than 2.2 hours, a limit known as cohesionless spin barrier. This barrier can be explained by the cohesionless rubble-pile structure model. There are few exceptions to this <<rule>>, called LSFRs (Large Super-Fast Rotators), as (455213) 2001 OE84, (335433) 2005 UW163 and 2011 XA3. The near-Earth asteroid (436724) 2011 UW158 was followed by an international team of optical and radar observers in 2015 during the flyby with Earth. It was discovered that this NEA is a new candidate LSFR. With the collected lightcurves from optical observations we are able to obtain the amplitude-phase relationship, sideral rotation period (PS=0.610752±0.000001PS = 0.610752 \pm 0.000001 h), a unique spin axis solution with ecliptic coordinates λ=290±3 \lambda = 290^{\circ} \pm 3^{\circ}, β=39±2\beta = 39^{\circ} \pm 2^{\circ} and the asteroid 3D model. This model is in qualitative agreement with the results from radar observations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1904.06271,
  title  = {Physical characterization of NEA Large Super-Fast Rotator (436724) 2011 UW158},
  author = {A. Carbognani and B. L. Gary and J. Oey and G. Baj and P. Bacci},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.06271},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

9 pages, 9 figures