Related papers: Fraction of Contact Binary Trojan Asteroids
Sparse and serendipitous asteroid photometry obtained by wide field surveys such as the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (\ATLAS) is a valuable resource for studying the properties of large numbers of small Solar System bodies.…
Searches for companions of brown dwarfs by direct imaging mainly probe orbital separations > 3-10 AU. On the other hand, previous radial velocity surveys of brown dwarfs are mainly sensitive to separations smaller than 0.6 AU. It has been…
Trojan asteroids are minor planets that share the orbit of a planet about the Sun and librate around the L4 or L5 Lagrangian points of stability. Although only three Mars Trojans have been discovered, models suggest that at least ten times…
The Trojan asteroids orbit about the Lagrangian points of Jupiter and the residence times about their present location are very long for most of them. If these bodies originated in the outer Solar System, they should be mainly composed of…
We have carried out a major survey for visual binaries towards the Orion Nebula Cluster using HST images obtained with an H-alpha filter. Among 781 likely ONC members more than 60" from theta-1 Ori C, we find 78 multiple systems (75…
In a previous paper we simulated the orbital evolution of dust particles from the Jupiter Trojan asteroids ejected by the impacts of interplanetary particles, and evaluated their overall configuration in the form of dust arcs. Here we…
A recent examination of K2 lightcurves indicates that ~15% of Jupiter Trojans have very slow rotation (spin periods Ps>100 h). Here we consider the possibility that these bodies formed as equal-size binaries in the massive outer disk at…
It appears that at least several percent of large Kuiper belt objects are members of wide binaries. Physical collisions are too infrequent to account for their formation. Collisionless gravitational interactions are more promising. These…
Many asteroids that make close encounters with terrestrial planets are in a binary configuration. Here we calculate the relevant encounter timescales and investigate the effects of encounters on a binary's mutual orbit. We use a combination…
Extensive time-resolved observations of Kuiper Belt object 2001 QG298 show a lightcurve with a peak-to-peak variation of 1.14 +-0.04 magnitudes and single-peaked period of 6.8872 +- 0.0002 hr. The mean absolute magnitude is 6.85 magnitudes…
Observations of the Kuiper Belt indicate that a larger than expected percentage of KBO's (approximately 8 out of 500) are in binary pairs. The formation and survival of such objects presents a conundrum [1]. Two competing theories have been…
We have searched Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) satellite photometry obtained in 2004, 2005, and 2007 of the solar-type star HD 209458 for Trojan asteroid swarms dynamically coupled with the system's transiting "hot…
We observed twelve Plutinos over two separated years with the 4.3m Lowell's Discovery Channel Telescope. Here, we present the first lightcurve data for those objects. Three of them (2014JL$_{80}$, 2014JO$_{80}$, 2014JQ$_{80}$) display a…
With a total mass similar to the main asteroid belt, the Jovian Trojan asteroids are a major feature in the solar system. Based upon the thermal infrared spectra of the largest Trojans obtained with the Spitzer space telescope, Emery et al.…
Asteroids with satellites are natural laboratories to constrain the formation and evolution of our solar system. The binary Trojan asteroid (624) Hektor is the only known Trojan asteroid to possess a small satellite. Based on W.M. Keck…
We describe a search for close spectroscopic dwarf M star binaries using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to address the question of the rate of occurrence of multiplicity in M dwarfs. We use a template fitting technique to…
Recent observations (Burnes et al 2002,Veillet et al 2002, Margot et al 2002a) have revealed an unexpectedly high binary fraction among the Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) that populate the Kuiper Belt. The TNO binaries are strikingly…
From the results of a comprehensive asteroid population evolution model, we conclude that the YORP-induced rotational fission hypothesis can be consistent with the observed population statistics of small asteroids in the main belt including…
We have used the NICMOS NIC1 camera on the Hubble Space Telescope to obtain high angular resolution images of 51 ultracool dwarfs in the immediate Solar Neighbourhood. Nine systems are resolved as binary, with component separations from 1.5…
Jupiter has nearly 8000~known co-orbital asteroids orbiting in the L4 and L5 Lagrange points called Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Aside from the greater number density of the L4 cloud the two clouds are in many ways considered to be identical.…