Characterization of Temporarily Captured Minimoon 2020 CD3 by Keck Time-resolved Spectrophotometry
Article
Article Title | Characterization of Temporarily Captured Minimoon 2020 CD3 by Keck Time-resolved |
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ERA Journal ID | 45091 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Bolin, Bryce T., Fremling, Christoffer, Holt, Timothy R., Hankins, Matthew J., Ahumada, Tomás, Anand, Shreya, Bhalerao, Varun, Burdge, Kevin B., Copperwheat, Chris M., Coughlin, Michael, Deshmukh, Kunal P., De, Kishalay, Kasliwal, Mansi M., Morbidelli, Alessandro, Purdum, Josiah N., Quimby, Robert, Bodewits, Dennis, Chang, Chan-Kao, Ip, Wing-Huen, Hsu, Chen-Yen, Laher, Russ R., Lin, Zhong-Yi, Lisse, Carey M., Masci, Frank J., Ngeow, Chow-Choong, Tan, Hanjie, Zhai, Chengxing, Burruss, Rick, Dekany, Richard, Delacroix, Alexandre, Duev, Dmitry A., Graham, Matthew, Hale, David, Kulkarni, Shrinivas R., Kupfer, Thomas, Mahabal, Ashish, Mroz, Przemyslaw J., Neill, James D., Riddle, Reed, Rodriguez, Hector, Smith, Roger M., Soumagnac, Maayane T., Walters, Richard, Yan, Lin and Zolkower, Jeffry |
Journal Title | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
Journal Citation | 900 (2), pp. 1-14 |
Article Number | L45 |
Number of Pages | 15 |
Year | 2021 |
Publisher | IOP Publishing |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 2041-8205 |
2041-8213 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/abae69 |
Web Address (URL) | https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/abae69 |
Abstract | We present time-resolved visible spectrophotometry of 2020 CD3, the second known minimoon. The spectrophotometry was taken with the Keck I/Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer between wavelengths 434 and 912 nm in the B, g, V, R, I, and RG850 filters as it was leaving the Earth-Moon system on 2020 March 23 UTC. The spectrum of 2020 CD3 resembles V-type asteroids and some lunar rock samples with a 434-761 nm reddish slope of ∼18%/100 nm (g-r = 0.62 ± 0.08 and r-i = 0.21 ± 0.06) with an absorption band at ∼900 nm corresponding to i-z = -0.54 ± 0.10. Combining our measured H of 31.9 ± 0.1 with an albedo of 0.35 typical for V-type asteroids, we determine 2020 CD3's diameter to be ∼0.9 ± 0.1 m, making it the first minimoon and one of the smallest asteroids to be spectrally studied. We use our time-series photometry to detect significant periodic light-curve variations with a period of ∼573 s and amplitude of ∼1. In addition, we extend the observational arc of 2020 CD3 to 37 days, to 2020 March 23 UTC. From the improved orbital solution for 2020 CD3, we estimate the likely duration of its capture to be ∼2 yr and the nongravitational perturbation on its orbit due to radiation pressure with an area-to-mass ratio of (6.9 ± 2.4) × 10-4 m2 kg-1 implying a density of 2.3 ± 0.8 g cm-3, broadly compatible with other meter-scale asteroids and lunar rock. We searched for prediscovery detections of 2020 CD3 in the Zwicky Transient Facility archive as far back as 2018 October but were unable to locate any positive detections. |
Keywords | Asteroids (72); Near-Earth objects (1092); Meteoroids (1040) |
Contains Sensitive Content | Does not contain sensitive content |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 510109. Stellar astronomy and planetary systems |
Public Notes | For access to this article, please click on the URL link provided. |
Byline Affiliations | California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States |
University of Southern Queensland | |
Southwest Research Institute, United States | |
University of Maryland, United States | |
Indian Institute of Technology, India | |
Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom | |
University of Minnesota, United States | |
Cote d'Azur University, France | |
San Diego State University, United States | |
University of Tokyo, Japan | |
Auburn University, United States | |
National Central University, Taiwan | |
Johns Hopkins University, United States | |
University of California, United States | |
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, United States | |
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/v8707/characterization-of-temporarily-captured-minimoon-2020-cd3-by-keck-time-resolved-spectrophotometry
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