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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

Authors :
Marco Delbo
Davide Loreggia
Davide Gandolfi
L. Saba
Mario G. Lattanzi
Alberto Cellino
C. Blanco
Sebastiano Ligori
Markus Wittkowski
Massimo Cigna
D. Licchelli
Mario Gai
Laboratoire de Cosmologie, Astrophysique Stellaire & Solaire, de Planétologie et de Mécanique des Fluides (CASSIOPEE)
Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) (UNS)
COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
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.

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