The orbit and density of the Jupiter Trojan satellite system Eurybates-Queta
Abstract
We report observations of the Jupiter Trojan asteroid (3548) Eurybates and its satellite Queta with the Hubble Space Telescope and use these observations to perform an orbital fit to the system. Queta orbits Eurybates with a semimajor axis of 2350 ± 11 km at a period of 82.46 ± 0.06 days and an eccentricity of 0.125±0.009. From this orbit we derive a mass of Eurybates of 1.51 ± 0.03 × 10¹⁷ kg, corresponding to an estimated density of 1.1 ± 0.3 g cm⁻³, broadly consistent with densities measured for other Trojans, C-type asteroids in the outer main asteroid belt, and small icy objects from the Kuiper belt. Eurybates is the parent body of the only major collisional family among the Jupiter Trojans; its low density suggests that it is a typical member of the Trojan population. Detailed study of this system in 2027 with the Lucy spacecraft flyby should allow significant insight into collisional processes among what appear to be the icy bodies of the Trojan belt.
Additional Information
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This research is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with programs GO-15144 and GO-16056. Software: MPFIT (Markwardt 2009); emcee (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2013)Attached Files
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Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 112544
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20211217-233234510
Related works
- Describes
- http://arxiv.org/abs/2106.02079 (URL)
Funding
- NASA
- NAS 5-26555
- NASA
- GO-15144
- NASA
- GO-16056
Dates
- Created
-
2021-12-20Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2023-06-02Created from EPrint's last_modified field