Photometric study of Main-belt asteroid (298) Baptistina

  • Published : 2021.10.13

Abstract

The Main-belt asteroid (298) Baptistina (hereafter 'Baptistina') is regarded as an X- (or C-) type asteroid and the largest member of the Baptistina asteroid family. Its basic physical properties play an important role in understanding the rotational evolution and orbital dynamics of the Baptistina family. In this study, we determined the physical characteristics of Baptistina from the optical observations. We conducted BVRI and R band photometric observations from 2017 to 2021 for a total of 47 nights using the 0.5 - 2.0 m-class telescopes. As a result, the color indices of Baptistina were derived as, , and ; this result is consistent with the previous classification of Baptistina as an X- (or C-) type. We also determined absolute magnitude () and slope parameter () by using a simplified version of the IAU H & G function (Bowell et al. 1989) are mag and respectively. We calculated the effective radius of Baptistina of km considering the visual geometric albedo of 0.131 from the NEOWISE data. Using the light-curve inversion method, the sidereal rotation period of 16.224235 h and the 3D shape model with a pole orientation (,) were also determined. In this presentation we will introduce our observations and results, and also discuss about the physical properties of Baptistina asteroid family members such as color indices.

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