Photometric observations of the Baptistina asteroid family

  • Published : 2015.04.10

Abstract

The Baptistina family is one of the typical young asteroid families with an age estimated to be about 140-320 Myrs old (Masiero et al. 2012); considered to have not enough time to experience a significant collisional and dynamical evolution since it was formed. Therefore, it may offer a unique insight into spin rate distribution of relatively fresh fragments and physical mechanism of a family break-up event. Observations of the Baptistina family asteroids were conducted during 111 nights from 2013 Oct. to 2015 Feb., using 0.5 m- to 2 m- class telescopes at 6 observatories in the northern hemisphere. We used CCD cameras on the Sobaeksan Optical Astronomy Observatory (SOAO) 0.6 m telescope on Mt. Sobaek, Korea, the Lemmonsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (LOAO) 1.0 m telescope on Mt. Lemmon, USA, the Tubitak Ulusal Gozlemevi (TUG) 1.0 m telescope in Bakirlitepe, Turkey, the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO) 1.8 m telescope on Mt. Bohyun, Korea, the McDonald Observatory 2.1 m Otto Struve Telescope on Mt. Locke, USA, and the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) Observatory 2.4 m telescope on Mt. Doi Inthanon, Thailand. Here, we will present our preliminary results for lightcurve analyses of Baptistina family members.

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