New Asteroid Moon

[higginsdj]

Got another one - found the signature of a moon orbiting a Main Belt Asteroid (though no CBET just yet) - that takes my tally to 7 in the last 18 months.

This one is my favourite as I am the only observer this time and I performed my own detection and analysis. The Pros have calculated P_Primary (Spin axis rotation) is 2.7093hrs and P_Orbit (Orbit period of the moon) is 15.88hrs. My analysis of P_Primary was spot on but my P_Orbit calculation was 0.31% off (most likely since I didn't remove any bad data points - but my process doesn't give me that option).

Still waiting to hear confirmation of sufficient coverage to warrant the submission of a CBET. As soon as the CBET is released I'll have a paper ready to publish on the methodology (will be available on my web site).

Cheers

[beren]

Congratulations, great news :thumbsup:

[iceman]

Congratulations, another amazing achievement from Australian amateurs.

Well done David!

I look forward to reading your paper. Will you presenting it at NACAA2008?

[higginsdj]

Thanks guys,

The paper will be published in the Minor Planet Bulletin (I hope). One pro believes my approach is less than ideal as it does nothing to remove aliases (or false positives) as it uses Fourier based Frequency Power Spectrums - but I was trying to keep it simple. (My aim was just to prove I could do it myself).

By NACAA2008 I expect to have uncovered several more binaries and may have moved onto other aspects of this type of work. I'm looking at delivering perhaps 1 paper and 1 poster so I'm leaning toward plonking it (summary steps) in the poster as I imagine that the process will be of little interest to most amateurs.

Edit - PS: I have to wait till Monday before the Senior Scientist gets back off holidays to analyse my data/work before a CBET is drafted.......

Cheers

[[1ponders]]

Congrats David. Another feather :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

WOW what a fantastic achievement, congratulations David!

[higginsdj]

Thanks guys.

Doing some more math I get Dprim = 6.7km with Dsec = 1.6km and a = 11km (Semi Major Axis) but this is based on assumed absolute magnitude. I'll have to do some colour photometry to work out the actual absolute magnitude to constrain the sizes better. The eclipsing events last approx 1.5hrs.

This is one of our smaller MB binaries finds (smallest is around Dprim = 3km).

Cheers

[higginsdj]

CBET 1015: 20070802: (6265) 1985 TW3 has been released announcing the finding.

Cheers

[Ric]

Well done David, congratulations on your achievements. :thumbsup:

Cheers