A New Observing Run

Some of you followed a blog I created telling of my trip to Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) last August. Its purpose was to study Jupiter Trojan Asteroids using the 0.9-meter telescope. Linda French and I were successful in obtaining lightcurves and rotational periods for several Trojans.

We published our work with a poster paper at the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Pasadena last October and with a paper in the Minor Planet Bulletin this January.

Now, in anticipation of future funding for studying these objects, we are concentrating on observing the smaller Trojan asteroids which will require using larger telescopes. While at CTIO, we talked to Larry Wasserman, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory who offered to help on the project. Larry tried getting some lightcurves in the Fall, and Linda had an observing run in January which was mostly clouded out. Linda then applied for and received some time on the Lowell 1.8-meter Perkins telescope located at their Anderson Mesa observing site. This run is six nights starting May 8.

Jupiter Trojan asteroids are a group of asteroids that share the orbit of Jupiter. They inhabit the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points, 60 degrees ahead and behind Jupiter in its orbit. Trojans are thought to have been trapped in this orbit early in the formation of the solar system and represent primordial material.

Almost all Trojans larger than 100 km in size have had their rotational periods determined. However, only half of the Trojans with sizes ranging between 50 km and 100 km have any data on their properties. Those that do suggest an excess of Trojans spinning extremely fast or slow. Over the next few years, we plan to focus on these smaller Trojans along with a sampling under 50 km in size in order to provide the statistical base to determine the mechanism causing this unequal distribution.