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MIDI observations of 1459 Magnya: First attempt of interferometric observations of asteroids with the VLTI
MIDI observations of 1459 Magnya: First attempt of interferometric observations of asteroids with the VLTI
- Source :
- Icarus, Icarus, Elsevier, 2006, 181, pp.618-622. ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2006.01.001⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2006
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2006.
-
Abstract
- The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) can be used to obtain direct determination of the sizes and the albedos of asteroids. We present results of the first attempt to carry out interferometric observations of asteroids with the Mid Infrared Interferometric Instrument (MIDI) at the VLTI. Our target was 1459 Magnya. This is the only V-type asteroid known to exist in the outer main-belt, and its IRAS-albedo turns out to be rather low for an object of this taxonomic class. Interferometric fringes were not detected, very likely due to the fact that the flux emitted by the asteroid was lower than expected and below the MIDI threshold for fringe detection. However, by fitting the Standard Thermal Model to the N-band infrared flux measured by MIDI in photometric mode and to the visible absolute magnitude, obtained from quasi-simultaneous B- and V-band photometric observations, we have derived a geometric visible albedo of 0.37 ± 0.06 and an effective diameter of 17 ± 1 km. This new estimate of the albedo differs from that previously obtained by IRAS and is more consistent with the V-type taxonomic classification of 1459 Magnya.
- Subjects :
- Physics
Absolute magnitude
Very Large Telescope
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
MIDI
Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Astronomy
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
computer.file_format
Albedo
01 natural sciences
Photometry (optics)
Interferometry
Space and Planetary Science
Asteroid
Observatory
0103 physical sciences
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
computer
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00191035 and 10902643
- Volume :
- 181
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Icarus
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....1b905be9f406905b182b2e40dbc99efd
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2006.01.001