(185851) 2000 DP107

(185851) 2000 DP107 is a near-Earth asteroid that is notable because it provided evidence for binary asteroids in the near-Earth population.

Discovery

The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR program on February 29, 2000.

The binary nature of this asteroid was suggested from radar observations taken with the Goldstone radar antenna on September 22 and 23, 2000, based on an observing proposal by J.-L. Margot and observations by S. J. Ostro and colleagues.[1] Confirming observations were obtained with the Arecibo telescope from September 30 to October 7, 2000.[2]

The binary system

The 800-meter-diameter primary and the 300-meter-diameter secondary orbit each other with a separation of 2.6 kilometers and a period of 1.76 days.[3]

The density of the primary was calculated using the orbital elements of the binary system, the primary-to-secondary mass ratio, and estimates of the primary size. The primary has a low density of 1.7 g/cm3, which may indicate a "rubble pile" structure containing rocks and voids.

The primary is spheroidal and is spinning at a rate near the breakup point for strengthless bodies. These two features were observed in multiple binary systems, suggesting that near-Earth asteroid binaries form by a mechanism involving spin-up and mass shedding.[3] Currently the most generally accepted spin-up mechanism is the Yarkovsky–O'Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack effect.

References

  1. ↑ IAUC 7496: 2000 S1; 2000 DP107
  2. ↑ IAUC 7503: 2000dp; Sats of minor planets
  3. 1 2 Margot, Jean-Luc; et al. (2002). "Binary Asteroids in the Near-Earth Object Population.". Science. 296 (5572): 1445–1448. Bibcode:2002Sci...296.1445M. doi:10.1126/science.1072094. PMID 11951001.

See also

External links

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