1,565 research outputs found
Optical observations of NEA 162173 (1999 JU3) during the 2011-2012 apparition
Near-Earth asteroid 162173 (1999 JU3) is a potential target of two asteroid
sample return missions, not only because of its accessibility but also because
of the first C-type asteroid for exploration missions. The lightcurve-related
physical properties of this object were investigated during the 2011-2012
apparition. We aim to confirm the physical parameters useful for JAXA's
Hayabusa 2 mission, such as rotational period, absolute magnitude, and phase
function. Our data complement previous studies that did not cover low phase
angles. With optical imagers and 1-2 m class telescopes, we acquired the
photometric data at different phase angles. We independently derived the
rotational lightcurve and the phase curve of the asteroid. We have analyzed the
lightcurve of 162173 (1999 JU3), and derived a synodic rotational period of
7.625 +/- 0.003 h, the axis ratio a/b = 1.12. The absolute magnitude H_R =
18.69 +/- 0.07 mag and the phase slope of G = -0.09 +/- 0.03 were also obtained
based on the observations made during the 2011-2012 apparition.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
The TAOS Project: Statistical Analysis of Multi-Telescope Time Series Data
The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) monitors fields of up to
~1000 stars at 5 Hz simultaneously with four small telescopes to detect
occultation events from small (~1 km) Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). The survey
presents a number of challenges, in particular the fact that the occultation
events we are searching for are extremely rare and are typically manifested as
slight flux drops for only one or two consecutive time series measurements. We
have developed a statistical analysis technique to search the multi-telescope
data set for simultaneous flux drops which provides a robust false positive
rejection and calculation of event significance. In this paper, we describe in
detail this statistical technique and its application to the TAOS data set.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to PAS
A Family of Models for Spherical Stellar Systems
We describe a one-parameter family of models of stable spherical stellar
systems in which the phase-space distribution function depends only on energy.
The models have similar density profiles in their outer parts () and central power-law density cusps, ,
. The family contains the Jaffe (1983) and Hernquist (1990) models
as special cases. We evaluate the surface brightness profile, the line-of-sight
velocity dispersion profile, and the distribution function, and discuss analogs
of King's core-fitting formula for determining mass-to-light ratio. We also
generalize the models to a two-parameter family, in which the galaxy contains a
central black hole; the second parameter is the mass of the black hole. Our
models can be used to estimate the detectability of central black holes and the
velocity-dispersion profiles of galaxies that contain central cusps, with or
without a central black hole.Comment: 24 pages, uuencoded compressed Postscript file 0.3 Mbyt
The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey: The Multi-Telescope Robotic Observatory
The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) operates four fully
automatic telescopes to search for occultations of stars by Kuiper Belt
Objects. It is a versatile facility that is also useful for the study of
initial optical GRB afterglows. This paper provides a detailed description of
the TAOS multi-telescope system, control software, and high-speed imaging.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure
- …