The EURONEAR Lightcurve Survey of Near Earth Asteroids—Teide Observatory, Tenerife, 2015.

Vaduvescu, O.; Cornea, R.; Macias, A. Aznar; Sonka, A.; Predatu, M.; Serra-Ricart, M.

One meter class telescopes could bring important contributions in the acquisition of lightcurves of near earth asteroids (NEAs), based on which rotations and other physical properties could be derived or constrained. Part of a collaboration between IAC, ESA and the EURONEAR during the semester 2015A, the IAC80 and OGS telescopes at Teide Observatory in Tenerife were allocated for a photometric project during 64 nights spread in a few observing runs. The main funding for this long observing mission was raised by the student observer Radu Cornea from private sponsors based in his natal city of Sibiu, Romania, mentioned in the Acknowledgements. We observed 33 lightcurves of NEAs not published before, including 10 potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). Based on the quality of the Fourier period fits, we sorted the results in four groups which include 7 secured periods, 9 candidate periods, 10 tentative periods and 7 objects not solved. We resolved periods or suggested constraints for 13 NEAs having no other rotation knowledge (including 3 PHAs), confirming periods for other 6 targets published by other authors (mainly by Brian Warner). We suggested tumbling or binary nature for 6 targets (probing one of them) recommended for future dedicated campaigns. We derived ellipsoid shape ratios for 21 NEAs (including 4 PHAs) not known before.

TENERIFE (Canary Islands); NATIONAL Education Association of the United States; OBSERVATORIES; ASTEROIDS; TELESCOPES; ROTATIONAL motion; CORNEA; ELLIPSOIDS

Earth, Moon & Planets, 2021, Vol 125, Issue 2, p1

0167-9295

Academic Journal

10.1007/s11038-021-09540-4