Zwicky Transient Facility Observations of Trojan Asteroids: A Thousand Colors, Rotation Amplitudes, and Phase Functions
- Creators
- Schemel, Madeline
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Brown, Michael E.
Abstract
We introduce a new method for analyzing sparse photometric data of asteroids and apply it to Zwicky Transient Facility observations of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. The method relies on the creation of a likelihood model that includes the probability distribution of rotational brightness variations at an unknown rotation phase. The likelihood model is analyzed via a Markov Chain Monte Carlo to quantify the uncertainty in our parameter estimates. Using this method, we provide color, phase parameter, absolute magnitude and amplitude of rotation measurements for 1049 Jupiter Trojans. We find that phase parameter is correlated with color and the distribution of Trojan asteroid rotational amplitudes is indistinguishable from that of main-belt asteroids.
Additional Information
We have benefited from insightful discussion with James Keane, Anna Simpson, Samantha Trumbo, and Elizabeth Bailey. We thank Stefano Mottola for sharing current photometry for comparison. We thank the two anonymous referees for a very thorough reading of this manuscript and for multiple excellent suggestions for clarifying the presentation. This analysis based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin 48-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW.Attached Files
Submitted - 2011.01329.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 106423
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20201104-092555261
- AST-1440341
- NSF
- ZTF partner institutions
- Created
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2020-11-04Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-02Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Zwicky Transient Facility, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences