Stellar occultation campaigns on Gaia binary candidates produced 33 multi-positive events for 24 asteroids, with four showing binary or contact-binary signatures.
Triplicity and Physical Characteristics of Asteroid (216) Kleopatra
2 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
2
Pith papers citing it
abstract
To take full advantage of the September 2008 opposition passage of the M-type asteroid (216) Kleopatra, we have used near-infrared adaptive optics (AO) imaging with the W.M. Keck II telescope to capture unprecedented high resolution images of this unusual asteroid. Our AO observations with the W.M. Keck II telescope, combined with Spitzer/IRS spectroscopic observations and past stellar occultations, confirm the value of its IRAS radiometric radius of 67.5 km as well as its dog-bone shape suggested by earlier radar observations. Our Keck AO observations revealed the presence of two small satellites in orbit about Kleopatra (see Marchis et al., 2008). Accurate measurements of the satellite orbits over a full month enabled us to determine the total mass of the system to be 4.64+/-0.02 10^18 Kg. This translates into a bulk density of 3.6 +/-0.4 g/cm3, which implies a macroscopic porosity for Kleopatra of ~ 30-50%, typical of a rubble-pile asteroid. From these physical characteristics we measured its specific angular momentum, very close to that of a spinning equilibrium dumbbell.
years
2026 2verdicts
UNVERDICTED 2representative citing papers
Multi-technique observations constrain the configuration of the ξ Tau system, detecting orbital oscillations on multiple timescales and suggesting component C is itself a binary.
citing papers explorer
-
Detection and characterisation of binary asteroid candidates through stellar occultations
Stellar occultation campaigns on Gaia binary candidates produced 33 multi-positive events for 24 asteroids, with four showing binary or contact-binary signatures.
-
Configuration of the $\xi$ Tau system constrained by multi-technique observations
Multi-technique observations constrain the configuration of the ξ Tau system, detecting orbital oscillations on multiple timescales and suggesting component C is itself a binary.