Guide to the Extended Versions of MPC Data Files Based on the MPCORB Format
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Occultation Newsletter Volume 8, Number 4
Volume 12, Number 1 January 2005 $5.00 North Am./$6.25 Other International Occultation Timing Association, Inc. (IOTA) In this Issue Article Page The Largest Members Of Our Solar System – 2005 . 4 Resources Page What to Send to Whom . 3 Membership and Subscription Information . 3 IOTA Publications. 3 The Offices and Officers of IOTA . .11 IOTA European Section (IOTA/ES) . .11 IOTA on the World Wide Web. Back Cover ON THE COVER: Steve Preston posted a prediction for the occultation of a 10.8-magnitude star in Orion, about 3° from Betelgeuse, by the asteroid (238) Hypatia, which had an expected diameter of 148 km. The predicted path passed over the San Francisco Bay area, and that turned out to be quite accurate, with only a small shift towards the north, enough to leave Richard Nolthenius, observing visually from the coast northwest of Santa Cruz, to have a miss. But farther north, three other observers video recorded the occultation from their homes, and they were fortuitously located to define three well- spaced chords across the asteroid to accurately measure its shape and location relative to the star, as shown in the figure. The dashed lines show the axes of the fitted ellipse, produced by Dave Herald’s WinOccult program. This demonstrates the good results that can be obtained by a few dedicated observers with a relatively faint star; a bright star and/or many observers are not always necessary to obtain solid useful observations. – David Dunham Publication Date for this issue: July 2005 Please note: The date shown on the cover is for subscription purposes only and does not reflect the actual publication date. -
1 Resonant Kuiper Belt Objects
Resonant Kuiper Belt Objects - a Review Renu Malhotra Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA Email: [email protected] Abstract Our understanding of the history of the solar system has undergone a revolution in recent years, owing to new theoretical insights into the origin of Pluto and the discovery of the Kuiper belt and its rich dynamical structure. The emerging picture of dramatic orbital migration of the planets driven by interaction with the primordial Kuiper belt is thought to have produced the final solar system architecture that we live in today. This paper gives a brief summary of this new view of our solar system's history, and reviews the astronomical evidence in the resonant populations of the Kuiper belt. Introduction Lying at the edge of the visible solar system, observational confirmation of the existence of the Kuiper belt came approximately a quarter-century ago with the discovery of the distant minor planet (15760) Albion (formerly 1992 QB1, Jewitt & Luu 1993). With the clarity of hindsight, we now recognize that Pluto was the first discovered member of the Kuiper belt. The current census of the Kuiper belt includes more than 2000 minor planets at heliocentric distances between ~30 au and ~50 au. Their orbital distribution reveals a rich dynamical structure shaped by the gravitational perturbations of the giant planets, particularly Neptune. Theoretical analysis of these structures has revealed a remarkable dynamic history of the solar system. The story is as follows (see Fernandez & Ip 1984, Malhotra 1993, Malhotra 1995, Fernandez & Ip 1996, and many subsequent works). -
The Minor Planets
The Minor Planets Swinburne Astronomy Online 3D PDF c SAO 2012 The Minor Planets c Swinburne Astronomy Online 2012 1 Description 1.1 Minor planets Our view of the Solar System has changed dramatically over the past 15 years with the discovery of new classes of small bodies. Mi- nor planets are another name for asteroids, or celestial bodies that orbit the Sun that are not otherwise classed as planets or comets. Generally, minor planets are relatively small rocky bodies, while comets are icy bodies that become active when their orbits carry them close to the Sun. (An \active" comet exhibits a large coma and a long tail.) The minor planets can be classified by their orbital characteristics. In this 3D PDF, we have included 5 classes of minor planets: (1) the Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs), (2) the main belt asteroids, (3) the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, (4) the Centaurs, and (5) the Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). The dataset used comes from the Minor Planets Centre. As of 19 November 2012, there were 9,346 NEAs (comprising 732 Atens, 4686 Apollos and 3928 Amors); 581,613 main belt asteroids; 5,407 jovian Trojans; 330 Centaurs; and 1,150 TNOs. (Note than in this 3D PDF, we have only included 11,678 main belt asteroids.) • The Near Earth Asteroids have perihelion distances of less than 1.3 AU, and include the following sub-classes: { Atens have aphelion distances greater than 0.983 AU, and semi-major axes less than 1 AU { Apollos have perihelion distances less than 1.017 AU, and semi-major axes greater than 1 AU { Amors have perihelion distances between 1.017 and 1.3 AU and semi-major axes greater than 1 AU • The main belt asteroids reside between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, with most of the asteroids orbiting between about 2.1 AU and 3.3 AU. -
Col-OSSOS: Colors of the Interstellar Planetesimal 1I/Oumuamua
DRAFT VERSION DECEMBER 7, 2017 Typeset using LATEX twocolumn style in AASTeX61 COL-OSSOS: COLORS OF THE INTERSTELLAR PLANETESIMAL 1I/‘OUMUAMUA MICHELE T. BANNISTER,1 MEGAN E. SCHWAMB,2 WESLEY C. FRASER,1 MICHAEL MARSSET,1 ALAN FITZSIMMONS,1 SUSAN D. BENECCHI,3 PEDRO LACERDA,1 ROSEMARY E. PIKE,4 J. J. KAVELAARS,5, 6 ADAM B. SMITH,2 SUNNY O. STEWART,2 SHIANG-YU WANG,7 AND MATTHEW J. LEHNER7, 8, 9 1Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom 2Gemini Observatory, Northern Operations Center, 670 North A’ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA 3Planetary Science Institute, 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA 4Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica; 11F AS/NTU, National Taiwan University, 1 Roosevelt Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei 10617, Taiwan 5Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, National Research Council of Canada, 5071 West Saanich Rd, Victoria, British Columbia V9E 2E7, Canada 6Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Elliott Building, 3800 Finnerty Rd, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada 7Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica; 11F of AS/NTU Astronomy-Mathematics Building, Nr. 1 Roosevelt Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei 10617, Taiwan 8Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 S. 33rd St., Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA 9Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA (Received 2017 November 16; Revised 2017 December 4; Accepted 2017 December 6) Submitted to ApJL ABSTRACT The recent discovery by Pan-STARRS1 of 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua), on an unbound and hyperbolic orbit, offers a rare oppor- tunity to explore the planetary formation processes of other stars, and the effect of the interstellar environment on a planetesimal surface. -
Why Pluto Is Not a Planet Anymore Or How Astronomical Objects Get Named
3 Why Pluto Is Not a Planet Anymore or How Astronomical Objects Get Named Sethanne Howard USNO retired Abstract Everywhere I go people ask me why Pluto was kicked out of the Solar System. Poor Pluto, 76 years a planet and then summarily dismissed. The answer is not too complicated. It starts with the question how are astronomical objects named or classified; asks who is responsible for this; and ends with international treaties. Ultimately we learn that it makes sense to demote Pluto. Catalogs and Names WHO IS RESPONSIBLE for naming and classifying astronomical objects? The answer varies slightly with the object, and history plays an important part. Let us start with the stars. Most of the bright stars visible to the naked eye were named centuries ago. They generally have kept their old- fashioned names. Betelgeuse is just such an example. It is the eighth brightest star in the northern sky. The star’s name is thought to be derived ,”Yad al-Jauzā' meaning “the Hand of al-Jauzā يد الجوزاء from the Arabic i.e., Orion, with mistransliteration into Medieval Latin leading to the first character y being misread as a b. Betelgeuse is its historical name. The star is also known by its Bayer designation − ∝ Orionis. A Bayeri designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation’s Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars. The Bayer designation typically assigns the letter alpha to the brightest star in the constellation and moves through the Greek alphabet, with each letter representing the next fainter star. -
16 Minor Planet Bulletin 40 (2013)
16 bimodal but has some indication of flattening of the maximums. LIGHTCURVES FOR 1394 ALGOA, 3078 HORROCKS, 4874 Burke was observed by Aymani (2012), who obtained a 4724 BROCKEN, AND 6329 HIKONEJYO period of 3.657 ± 0.001 and amplitude A = 0.31 mag. Menzies FROM ETSCORN CAMPUS OBSERVATORY (2012) obtained a period of 3.656 ± 0.001 and an amplitude of 0.23 ± 0.02 mag. Daniel A. Klinglesmith III, Ethan Risley, Janek Turk, Angelica Vargas, Curtis Warren The 115° longitude difference between the Etscorn Campus Etscorn Campus Observatory Observatory and the Bigmuskie Observatory allowed almost an 8 New Mexico Tech hour (~0.3) phase shift for 3948 Bohr. This allowed us to cover the 101 East Road nearly 24-hour sidereal period asteroid completely. This type of Socorro, NM, USA 87801 international collaboration is essential for asteroid with periods [email protected] near 24 hours. The collaboration continued with the observations of 4874 Burke’s 3.657-hour period (Received: 6 September) Between 2012 March and June, four asteroids were observed at the Etscorn Campus Observatory. Synodic periods and amplitudes were determined for all four: 1394 Algoa, P = 2.768 ± 0.001 h, A = 0.21 ± 0.10 mag; 3078 Horrocks, P = 13.620 ± 0.003 h, A = 0.25 ± 0.10 mag; 4724 Brocken, P = 5.912 ± 0.001 h, A = 0.75 ± 0.10 mag; and 6329 Hikonejyo, P = 6.064 ± 0.001 h, A = 0.23 ± 0.10 mag. Continuing with the lightcurve program at Etscorn Campus Observatory, we obtained data for four asteroids using our two Celestron 35.6-cm f/11 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes and SBIG STL-1001E CCD cameras with 1024x1024x24-micron pixels. -
The Minor Planet Bulletin 37 (2010) 45 Classification for 244 Sita
THE MINOR PLANET BULLETIN OF THE MINOR PLANETS SECTION OF THE BULLETIN ASSOCIATION OF LUNAR AND PLANETARY OBSERVERS VOLUME 37, NUMBER 2, A.D. 2010 APRIL-JUNE 41. LIGHTCURVE AND PHASE CURVE OF 1130 SKULD Robinson (2009) from his data taken in 2002. There is no evidence of any change of (V-R) color with asteroid rotation. Robert K. Buchheim Altimira Observatory As a result of the relatively short period of this lightcurve, every 18 Altimira, Coto de Caza, CA 92679 (USA) night provided at least one minimum and maximum of the [email protected] lightcurve. The phase curve was determined by polling both the maximum and minimum points of each night’s lightcurve. Since (Received: 29 December) The lightcurve period of asteroid 1130 Skuld is confirmed to be P = 4.807 ± 0.002 h. Its phase curve is well-matched by a slope parameter G = 0.25 ±0.01 The 2009 October-November apparition of asteroid 1130 Skuld presented an excellent opportunity to measure its phase curve to very small solar phase angles. I devoted 13 nights over a two- month period to gathering photometric data on the object, over which time the solar phase angle ranged from α = 0.3 deg to α = 17.6 deg. All observations used Altimira Observatory’s 0.28-m Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) working at f/6.3, SBIG ST- 8XE NABG CCD camera, and photometric V- and R-band filters. Exposure durations were 3 or 4 minutes with the SNR > 100 in all images, which were reduced with flat and dark frames. -
Nomenclature in the Outer Solar System 43
Gladman et al.: Nomenclature in the Outer Solar System 43 Nomenclature in the Outer Solar System Brett Gladman University of British Columbia Brian G. Marsden Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Christa VanLaerhoven University of British Columbia We define a nomenclature for the dynamical classification of objects in the outer solar sys- tem, mostly targeted at the Kuiper belt. We classify all 584 reasonable-quality orbits, as of May 2006. Our nomenclature uses moderate (10 m.y.) numerical integrations to help classify the current dynamical state of Kuiper belt objects as resonant or nonresonant, with the latter class then being subdivided according to stability and orbital parameters. The classification scheme has shown that a large fraction of objects in the “scattered disk” are actually resonant, many in previously unrecognized high-order resonances. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.2. Classification Outline Dynamical nomenclature in the outer solar system is For small-a comets, historical divisions are rather arbi- complicated by the reality that we are dealing with popu- trary (e.g., based on orbital period), although recent classi- lations of objects that may have orbital stability times that fications take relative stability into account by using the Tis- are either moderately short (millions of years or less), ap- serand parameter (Levison, 1996) to separate the rapidly preciable fractions of the age of the solar system, or ex- depleted Jupiter-family comets (JFCs) from the longer-lived tremely stable (longer than the age of the solar -
The Minor Planet Bulletin
THE MINOR PLANET BULLETIN OF THE MINOR PLANETS SECTION OF THE BULLETIN ASSOCIATION OF LUNAR AND PLANETARY OBSERVERS VOLUME 35, NUMBER 3, A.D. 2008 JULY-SEPTEMBER 95. ASTEROID LIGHTCURVE ANALYSIS AT SCT/ST-9E, or 0.35m SCT/STL-1001E. Depending on the THE PALMER DIVIDE OBSERVATORY: binning used, the scale for the images ranged from 1.2-2.5 DECEMBER 2007 – MARCH 2008 arcseconds/pixel. Exposure times were 90–240 s. Most observations were made with no filter. On occasion, e.g., when a Brian D. Warner nearly full moon was present, an R filter was used to decrease the Palmer Divide Observatory/Space Science Institute sky background noise. Guiding was used in almost all cases. 17995 Bakers Farm Rd., Colorado Springs, CO 80908 [email protected] All images were measured using MPO Canopus, which employs differential aperture photometry to determine the values used for (Received: 6 March) analysis. Period analysis was also done using MPO Canopus, which incorporates the Fourier analysis algorithm developed by Harris (1989). Lightcurves for 17 asteroids were obtained at the Palmer Divide Observatory from December 2007 to early The results are summarized in the table below, as are individual March 2008: 793 Arizona, 1092 Lilium, 2093 plots. The data and curves are presented without comment except Genichesk, 3086 Kalbaugh, 4859 Fraknoi, 5806 when warranted. Column 3 gives the full range of dates of Archieroy, 6296 Cleveland, 6310 Jankonke, 6384 observations; column 4 gives the number of data points used in the Kervin, (7283) 1989 TX15, 7560 Spudis, (7579) 1990 analysis. Column 5 gives the range of phase angles. -
The Kuiper Belt and the Primordial Evolution of the Solar System
Morbidelli and Brown: Kuiper Belt and Evolution of Solar System 175 The Kuiper Belt and the Primordial Evolution of the Solar System A. Morbidelli Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur M. E. Brown California Institute of Technology We discuss the structure of the Kuiper belt as it can be inferred from the first decade of observations. In particular, we focus on its most intriguing properties — the mass deficit, the inclination distribution, and the apparent existence of an outer edge and a correlation among inclinations, colors, and sizes — which clearly show that the belt has lost the pristine structure of a dynamically cold protoplanetary disk. Understanding how the Kuiper belt acquired its present structure will provide insight into the formation of the outer planetary system and its early evolution. We critically review the scenarios that have been proposed so far for the pri- mordial sculpting of the belt. None of them can explain in a single model all the observed properties; the real history of the Kuiper belt probably requires a combination of some of the proposed mechanisms. 1. INTRODUCTION A primary goal of this chapter is to present the orbital structure of the Kuiper belt as it stands based on the current When Edgeworth and Kuiper conjectured the existence observations. We start in section 2 by presenting the various of a belt of small bodies beyond Neptune — now known subclasses that constitute the transneptunian population. as the Kuiper belt — they certainly were imagining a disk Then in section 3 we describe some striking properties of of planetesimals that preserved the pristine conditions of the the population, such as its mass deficit, inclination excita- protoplanetary disk. -
Planck Collaboration: ERCSC the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no. 16474ms c ESO 2011 August 15, 2011 Planck Early Results. VII. The Early Release Compact Source Catalogue Planck Collaboration: P. A. R. Ade76, N. Aghanim50, M. Arnaud63, M. Ashdown61,4, J. Aumont50, C. Baccigalupi74, A. Balbi30, A. J. Banday82,8,68, R. B. Barreiro57, J. G. Bartlett3,59, E. Battaner84, K. Benabed51, A. Benoˆıt49, J.-P. Bernard82,8, M. Bersanelli27,43, R. Bhatia5, A. Bonaldi39, L. Bonavera74,6, J. R. Bond7, J. Borrill67,78, F. R. Bouchet51, M. Bucher3, C. Burigana42, R. C. Butler42, P. Cabella30, C. M. Cantalupo67, B. Cappellini43, J.-F. Cardoso64,3,51, P. Carvalho4, A. Catalano3,62, L. Cay´on20, A. Challinor54,61,11, A. Chamballu47, R.-R. Chary48⋆, X. Chen48, L.-Y Chiang53, C. Chiang19, P. R. Christensen71,31, D. L. Clements47, S. Colombi51, F. Couchot66, A. Coulais62, B. P. Crill59,72, F. Cuttaia42, L. Danese74, R. J. Davis60, P. de Bernardis26, A. de Rosa42, G. de Zotti39,74, J. Delabrouille3, J.-M. Delouis51, F.-X. D´esert45, C. Dickinson60, J. M. Diego57, K. Dolag68, H. Dole50, S. Donzelli43,55, O. Dor´e59,9, U. D¨orl68, M. Douspis50, X. Dupac34, G. Efstathiou54, T. A. Enßlin68, H. K. Eriksen55, F. Finelli42, O. Forni82,8, P. Fosalba52, M. Frailis41, E. Franceschi42, S. Galeotta41, K. Ganga3,48, M. Giard82,8, Y. Giraud-H´eraud3, J. Gonz´alez-Nuevo74, K. M. G´orski59,86, S. Gratton61,54, A. Gregorio28, A. Gruppuso42, J. Haissinski66, F. K. Hansen55, D. Harrison54,61, G. Helou9, S. Henrot-Versill´e66, C. Hern´andez-Monteagudo68 , D. Herranz57, S. R. Hildebrandt9,65,56, E. -
(2000) Forging Asteroid-Meteorite Relationships Through Reflectance
Forging Asteroid-Meteorite Relationships through Reflectance Spectroscopy by Thomas H. Burbine Jr. B.S. Physics Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1988 M.S. Geology and Planetary Science University of Pittsburgh, 1991 SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC, AND PLANETARY SCIENCES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN PLANETARY SCIENCES AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FEBRUARY 2000 © 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Signature of Author: Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences December 30, 1999 Certified by: Richard P. Binzel Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Thesis Supervisor Accepted by: Ronald G. Prinn MASSACHUSES INSTMUTE Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Department Head JA N 0 1 2000 ARCHIVES LIBRARIES I 3 Forging Asteroid-Meteorite Relationships through Reflectance Spectroscopy by Thomas H. Burbine Jr. Submitted to the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences on December 30, 1999 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Planetary Sciences ABSTRACT Near-infrared spectra (-0.90 to ~1.65 microns) were obtained for 196 main-belt and near-Earth asteroids to determine plausible meteorite parent bodies. These spectra, when coupled with previously obtained visible data, allow for a better determination of asteroid mineralogies. Over half of the observed objects have estimated diameters less than 20 k-m. Many important results were obtained concerning the compositional structure of the asteroid belt. A number of small objects near asteroid 4 Vesta were found to have near-infrared spectra similar to the eucrite and howardite meteorites, which are believed to be derived from Vesta.