Insights on the Rotational State and Shape of Asteroid (203) Pompeja from TESS Photometry

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Main Authors: Humes, Oriel A., Hanuš, Josef
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Humes, Oriel A.
Hanuš, Josef
author_facet Humes, Oriel A.
Hanuš, Josef
contents The Main Belt asteroid (203) Pompeja shows evidence of extreme variability in visible and near-infrared spectral slope with time. The observed spectral variability has been hypothesized to be attributed to spatial variations across Pompeja's surface. In this scenario, the observed spectrum of Pompeja is dependent on the geometry of the Sun and the observer relative to the asteroid's spin pole and surface features. Knowledge of the rotational spin pole and shape can be gleaned from light curves and photometric measurements. However, dense light curves of Pompeja are only available from two apparitions. Further, previous estimates of Pompeja's sidereal period are close to being Earth-commensurate, making ground-based light curves difficult to obtain. To overcome these difficulties, we implement a pipeline to extract a dense light curve of Pompeja from cutouts of TESS Full Frame Images. We succeeded in obtaining a dense light curve of Pompeja covering $\sim$22 complete rotations. We measure a synodic period of $P_{syn} =24.092 \pm 0.005$ hours and amplitude of 0.073 $\pm$ 0.002 magnitudes during Pompeja's 2021 apparition in the TESS field of view. We use this light curve to refine models of Pompeja's shape and spin pole orientation, yielding two spin pole solutions with sidereal periods and spin pole ecliptic coordinates of $P_{\mathrm{sid}, 1} = 24.0485 \pm 0.0001$ hours, $λ_1 = 132^{\circ}$, $β_1 = +41^{\circ}$ and $P_{\mathrm{sid}, 2} = 24.0484 \pm 0.0001$ hours, $λ_2 =307^{\circ}$, $β_2 =+34^{\circ}$. Finally, we discuss the implications of the derived shape and spin models for spectral variability on Pompeja.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_04123
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Insights on the Rotational State and Shape of Asteroid (203) Pompeja from TESS Photometry
Humes, Oriel A.
Hanuš, Josef
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
The Main Belt asteroid (203) Pompeja shows evidence of extreme variability in visible and near-infrared spectral slope with time. The observed spectral variability has been hypothesized to be attributed to spatial variations across Pompeja's surface. In this scenario, the observed spectrum of Pompeja is dependent on the geometry of the Sun and the observer relative to the asteroid's spin pole and surface features. Knowledge of the rotational spin pole and shape can be gleaned from light curves and photometric measurements. However, dense light curves of Pompeja are only available from two apparitions. Further, previous estimates of Pompeja's sidereal period are close to being Earth-commensurate, making ground-based light curves difficult to obtain. To overcome these difficulties, we implement a pipeline to extract a dense light curve of Pompeja from cutouts of TESS Full Frame Images. We succeeded in obtaining a dense light curve of Pompeja covering $\sim$22 complete rotations. We measure a synodic period of $P_{syn} =24.092 \pm 0.005$ hours and amplitude of 0.073 $\pm$ 0.002 magnitudes during Pompeja's 2021 apparition in the TESS field of view. We use this light curve to refine models of Pompeja's shape and spin pole orientation, yielding two spin pole solutions with sidereal periods and spin pole ecliptic coordinates of $P_{\mathrm{sid}, 1} = 24.0485 \pm 0.0001$ hours, $λ_1 = 132^{\circ}$, $β_1 = +41^{\circ}$ and $P_{\mathrm{sid}, 2} = 24.0484 \pm 0.0001$ hours, $λ_2 =307^{\circ}$, $β_2 =+34^{\circ}$. Finally, we discuss the implications of the derived shape and spin models for spectral variability on Pompeja.
title Insights on the Rotational State and Shape of Asteroid (203) Pompeja from TESS Photometry
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.04123