ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS JULY 1998,PAGE55 SUPPLEMENT SERIES Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 131, 55–62 (1998) Physical studies of asteroids XXXIII. The spin rate of M-type asteroids? C.-I. Lagerkvist1,I.Belskaya2, A. Erikson3, V. Schevchenko2, S. Mottola3, V. Chiorny2, P. Magnusson1, A. Nathues3, and J. Piironen4 1 Astronomiska Observatoriet, Box 515, S-752 20 Uppsala, Sverige 2 Astronomical Observatory, 35 Sumskaya Str., 310022 Kharkiv, Ukraine 3 Institute of Planetary Exploration, DLR, Rudower Chaussee 5, 12489 Berlin, Germany 4 Observatory, P.O. Box 14, FIN–00014, University of Helsinki, Finland Received December 12, 1997; accepted January 30, 1998 Abstract. The results from photometric lightcurve obser- number of M-type asteroids with known rotation periods. vations of nine M-type asteroids are presented. New rota- In this paper we present observations of nine M-type as- tion periods were determined for 6 asteroids: 217 Eudora teroids, resulting in new determinations of spin rates for (12.54 h), 322 Phaeo (17.56 h), 572 Rebekka (5.65 h), six of these. This gives an increase of more than 15% of 757 Portland (6.58 h), 857 Glasenappia (8.23 h) and 872 the known spin rates of asteroids of taxonomic type M. Holda (7.20 h). B − V colour measurements of seventeen In order to increase the known population of M-type as- previously unclassified asteroids add seven asteroids to the teroids we have determined B − V colour indices for 17 known M-type population. asteroids with moderate albedos. The second problem is An excess of fast rotators among M-type asteroids the inconsistent classification of some asteroids between compared to asteroids of other taxonomic types is evident. different taxonomies. Below we discuss the reliability of The six asteroids with slow spin rates, but hitherto clas- the classification for some peculiar objects. sified as M, are shown to have classification parameters untypical for the M-type population. 2. Observations and results Key words: asteroids 2.1. Photometry The photometric observations were made in 1984-1996 at four different sites within the frame of a joint obser- 1. Introduction vational program. We used the following telescopes: 0.6 m Swedish telescope at La Palma (LP), Canary Islands, The present paper is a continuation of our study of M- 61 cm Bochum, 50-cm and 1 m ESO telescopes at ESO, type asteroids (Belskaya & Lagerkvist 1996). The purpose La Silla, Chile and the 70-cm telescope of Astronomical is to enlarge the data set of rotation periods of asteroids Observatory of Kharkiv State University (KhAO). The of taxonomic type M. Previous studies of the spin rates observations at KhAO and with the Bochum telescope of M-type asteroids have shown, with varying statistical were CCD observations, otherwise conventional photoelec- significance, that on average M-type asteroids have faster tric photometry was used. All the photometric reductions spin than asteroids of other taxonomic types (Harris & were made with standard methods. The data are corrected Burns 1979; Dermott & Murray 1982; Lagerkvist 1983; for light-time. Table 1 contains the aspect data of the Lagerkvist et al. 1985; Binzel et al. 1989; Belskaya & observed asteroids and references to the used telescopes. Lagerkvist 1996). The obtained rotation periods and amplitudes are given in There are two main problems in analysing the distri- Table 2. The errors in the rotation periods are indicated bution of spin rates for M-type objects. One is the small by the number of decimals given. The amplitude errors are Send offprint requests to: C.-I. Lagerkvist normally of a few hundreds of a magnitude. Figures 1-11 ? Partly based on observations collected at the European present the composite lightcurves of individual asteroids. Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile. Below we discuss each asteroid in more detail. 56 C.-I. Lagerkvist et al.: The spin rate of M-type asteroids Table 1. Aspect data Asteroid Date r ∆ αλ2000 β2000 Telescope (UT) (AU) (AU) (◦)(◦)(◦) 97 Klotho 1995 Mar.-26.3 3.149 2.313 11.6 222.8 12.6 Bochum 61 cm 97 Klotho 1995 Mar.-27.3 3.151 2.306 11.3 222.7 12.7 Bochum 61 cm 97 Klotho 1995 Apr.-29.3 3.201 2.217 4.5 216.0 14.3 Bochum 61 cm 97 Klotho 1995 May-4.1 3.208 2.229 5.2 214.9 14.4 Bochum 61 cm 97 Klotho 1995 May-5.1 3.210 2.232 5.3 214.7 14.4 Bochum 61 cm 217 Eudora 1996 Apr.-25.9 2.799 1.810 4.7 212.1 12.6 KhAO 70 cm 217 Eudora 1996 May-25.8 2.702 1.851 14.1 206.1 12.9 KhAO 70 cm 217 Eudora 1996 May-26.8 2.699 1.856 14.4 205.9 12.9 KhAO 70 cm 322 Phaeo 1996 Apr.-16.0 3.405 2.408 2.4 206.4 −8.3 Bochum 61 cm 322 Phaeo 1996 Apr.-17.0 3.404 2.407 2.5 206.2 −8.3 Bochum 61 cm 322 Phaeo 1996 Apr.-21.0 3.400 2.406 3.0 205.4 −8.2 Bochum 61 cm 322 Phaeo 1996 Apr.-23.0 3.398 2.407 3.4 204.9 −8.1 Bochum 61 cm 337 Devosa 1995 Sep.-20.2 2.323 1.345 7.4 14.0 2.6 ESO 50 cm 558 Carmen 1992 Sep.-3.3 2.889 2.099 14.6 26.9 −8.6 ESO 1 m 558 Carmen 1992 Sep.-5.3 2.888 2.080 14.1 26.7 −8.7 ESO 1 m 572 Rebekka 1996 Feb.-17.1 2.479 1.533 8.4 131.6 −14.4 Bochum 61 cm 572 Rebekka 1996 Feb.-18.1 2.481 1.538 8.7 131.4 −14.3 Bochum 61 cm 572 Rebekka 1996 Feb.-20.2 2.484 1.550 9.4 130.9 −14.2 Bochum 61 cm 757 Portlandia 1996 Sep.-29.9 2.135 1.439 23.7 66.0 4.1 KhAO 70 cm 757 Portlandia 1996 Sep.-30.9 2.134 1.429 23.5 66.1 4.2 KhAO 70 cm 757 Portlandia 1996 Oct.-9.9 2.130 1.344 21.0 66.5 5.1 KhAO 70 cm 757 Portlandia 1996 Nov.-12.9 2.119 1.145 6.6 62.2 8.6 KhAO 70 cm 757 Portlandia 1996 Nov.-13.9 2.118 1.143 6.2 61.9 8.7 KhAO 70 cm 857 Glasenappia 1997 May-6.0 2.251 1.317 12.8 196.1 7.3 KhAO 70 cm 857 Glasenappia 1997 May-7.0 2.250 1.322 13.2 195.9 7.3 KhAO 70 cm 857 Glasenappia 1997 May-8.0 2.249 1.326 13.6 195.7 7.2 KhAO 70 cm 872 Holda 1995 Oct.-28.0 2.931 2.071 11.6 357.9 1.0 Bochum 61 cm 872 Holda 1995 Oct.-30.0 2.932 2.089 12.2 357.7 1.0 Bochum 61 cm 872 Holda 1996 Nov.-14.9 2.866 2.065 13.7 95.4 −9.4 KhAO 70 cm 872 Holda 1996 Dec.-18.9 2.843 1.871 3.8 89.3 −10.8 KhAO 70 cm 97 Klotho: 8.1 97 Klotho This asteroid has previously been observed during six apparitions. Harris & Young (1983) determined a rota- tion period of 35 hours and pointed out that this was the longest period among the known M-type objects. 8.2 Lagerkvist et al. (1988) determined a rotation period of 35.58 hours. Data obtained by Dotto et al. (1992) agree with this period but they do not cover a whole rota- 8.3 tion cycle. The extensive observational run undertaken by Reduced V magnitude Reduced Lagerkvist et al. (1995) confirmed the slow rotation (35.0 1995 Mar 26.3 V rel. 12.998 1995 Mar 27.3 V -0.129 hours) of 97 Klotho. Our observations during three appari- 1995 Apr 29.3 V rel. 13.291 Psyn= 35.15 hr 1995 May 4.1 V 0.114 tions also give a long rotation period. The observations in 8.4 T0 = 1995 Apr 17.0 1995 May 5.1 V rel. 12.889 1995, made during March-May, gave us a possibility to de- fine a more precise value of the rotation period. A period 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 of 35.15 hours is the best solution from our observations Rotational phase (Fig. 1). All previously obtained data of 97 Klotho agree Fig. 1. Composite lightcurve of 97 Klotho well with this rotation period. minimum polarization (0.82%), which are typical for M- 217 Eudora: type objects. The IRAS albedo (0.05), however, is more This asteroid was classified to be of type M by Belskaya typical for P-type asteroids. Since the agreement between et al. (1991) based on its colour indices and the value of polarimetric and radiometric albedos is poor we included C.-I. Lagerkvist et al.: The spin rate of M-type asteroids 57 9.2 9.0 217 Eudora 337 Devosa 9.3 9.1 9.4 9.2 Reduced V magnitude Reduced Relative V magnitude Relative 9.5 9.3 1996 Apr 25.9 V rel. 0.329 Psyn= 4.61 hr P = 12.54 hr 1996 May 25.8 V rel. -0.887 syn T = 1995 Sep 20.0 1995 Sep 20.2 V 0.000 T = 1996 May 16.0 1996 May 26.8 V rel.