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M. A. Leake, C. Rollins (Valdosta State U.), T.J. Wark (Rowan U.)
Differential photometry of the asteroids 727 Nipponia and 741 Botolphia yielded light curves and periods consistent with those available from observers of the Observatoire de Geneve. Data were collected with the SARA 0.9-m telescope at KPNO over the nights of April 27, 2003, May 14, 2004, and June 27-29, 2004, using an Apogee AP7p 511x512 CCD camera, and reduced with Mira 6.0 and IDL routines. This project will help find the rotation period of several primitive asteroids and follow up with spectral analyses to determine where on these asteroids water of hydration may be located. The Nipponia data cover a full rotation period (nominally 5.07h) and the phased light curve resembles those of Behrend et al. at the Ob. Geneve (http://obswww.unige.ch/~behrend/). The Botolphia data cover a quarter of the almost 24-h (provisional) period, and supplement light curves available from the Ob. Geneve groups. Both asteroids are small (about 30 km), mid-belt, of uncertain taxonomy (DT for Nipponia, X for Botolphia), and have slightly high albedo (0.14 to 0.24); whether they are “primitive” is uncertain. Continuing differential photometry at varying phase angles and spectral analyses are planned to examine the spectral heterogeneity of these objects and to search for water of hydration. This research was part of the summer REU program at the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA), made possible by National Science Foundation Grant AST-0097616.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mleake@valdosta.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #4
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.