Extreme AO Observations of Two Triple Asteroid Systems with SPHERE

Abstract

We present the discovery of a new satellite of asteroid (130) Elektra - S/2014 (130) 1 - in differential imaging and in integral field spectroscopy data over multiple epochs obtained with SPHERE/VLT. This new (second) moonlet of Elektra is about 2 km across, on an eccentric orbit and about 500 km away from the primary. For a comparative study, we also observed another triple asteroid system (93) Minerva. For both systems, component-resolved reflectance spectra of the satellites and primary were obtained simultaneously. No significant spectral difference was observed between the satellites and the primary for either triple system. We find that the moonlets in both systems are more likely to have been created by sub-disruptive impacts as opposed to having been captured.

arXiv comment8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

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Cited by in corpus (18)

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• (16) Psyche: A mesosiderite-like asteroid?
• The homogeneous internal structure of CM-like asteroid (41) Daphne
• Physical, spectral, and dynamical properties of asteroid (107) Camilla and its satellites
• (216) Kleopatra, a low density critically rotating M-type asteroid
• Binary asteroid (31) Euphrosyne: Ice-rich and nearly spherical
• Shape model of asteroid (130) Elektra from optical photometry and disk-resolved images from VLT/SPHERE and Nirc2/Keck
• First observation of a quadruple asteroid -- Detection of a third moon around (130) Elektra with SPHERE/IFS
• Spectral Evidence for Amorphous Silicates in Least-processed CO Meteorites and Their Parent Bodies
• Investigating the formation of small Solar System objects using stellar occultations by satellites: present, future and its use to update satellite orbits
• An advanced multipole model of the (130) Elektra quadruple system
• The equilibrium shape of (65) Cybele: primordial or relic of a large impact?
• Blind and robust estimation of adaptive optics point spread function and diffuse halo with sharp-edged objects
• {\sc precision}: A fast python pipeline for high-contrast imaging -- application to SPHERE observations of the red supergiant VX Sagitariae
• A dynamical dichotomy in large binary asteroids
• (130) Elektra Delta -- on the stability of the new third moonlet
• Blind and robust reconstruction of adaptive optics point spread functions for asteroid deconvolution and moon detection