Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Detection of a Satellite of the Trojan Asteroid (3548) Eurybates—A Lucy Mission Target

2020; Institute of Physics; Volume: 1; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3847/psj/abac54

2632-3338

Keith Noll, Michael E. Brown, H. A. Weaver, W. M. Grundy, Simon B. Porter, M. W. Buie, Harold F. Levison, C. B. Olkin, J. R. Spencer, S. Marchi, Thomas S. Statler,

Geological and Geochemical Analysis

Abstract We describe the discovery of a satellite of the Trojan asteroid (3548) Eurybates in images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The satellite was detected on three separate epochs, two in 2018 September and one in 2020 January. The satellite has a brightness in all three epochs consistent with an effective diameter of d 2 = 1.2 ± 0.4 km. The projected separation from Eurybates was s ∼ 1700–2300 km and varied in position, consistent with a large range of possible orbits. Eurybates is a target of the Lucy Discovery mission and the early detection of a satellite provides an opportunity for a significant expansion of the scientific return from this encounter.