Asteroids (17493) WILDCAT, (22653) 1998 QW2, 2006 FZ51, 2006 GZ42, 2006 HH89: no evidence of cometary activity
ATel #879; Olivier Mousis (Besançon Observatory, France), Raoul Behrend (Geneva Observatory, Switzerland), Olivier Lorin (Besançon Observatory, France), on behalf of the T3 project
on 1 Sep 2006; 12:38 UT
Credential Certification: Olivier Mousis (Olivier.Mousis@obs-besancon.fr)
Subjects: Optical, Asteroid, Comet, Planet (minor), Solar System Object
The 1.0m telescope at Sutherland (SAAO, South-Afrika) was used to image the objects (17493) WILDCAT, (22653) 1998 QW2, 2006 FZ51, 2006 GZ42, 2006 HH89. All of these asteroids have orbits with a Tisserand parameter close to 3, corresponding to the boundary between asteroidal and cometary orbits (Hsieh and Jewitt 2006 Science, 312, 561). Short exposure sequences of 30 to 60 seconds per frame were acquired between 2006-06-01 and 2006-06-11, giving a total exposure time of 45 to 60 minutes per object. The images were stacked twice per target: once on the asteroidâs proper motion, once without motion - the same clipping algorithm was used when combining the frames. The surface brightness profiles of the targets and stars with equal magnitudes were compared. The comparisons show no evidence for neither a coma nor a tail on any object observed. This work is conducted on behalf of the T3 project (http://asteroidi.uai.it/t3.htm)
