2020 BX12—The Last Binary Asteroid Discovered at Arecibo
Radar observations of 2020 BX _12 conducted with the S -band planetary radar system (2380 MHz, 12.6 cm) at the Arecibo Observatory on 2020 February 4 and 5 revealed that this potentially hazardous asteroid is a binary system. Spectroscopic observations with the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias on 202...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | The Planetary Science Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/adbe39 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Radar observations of 2020 BX _12 conducted with the S -band planetary radar system (2380 MHz, 12.6 cm) at the Arecibo Observatory on 2020 February 4 and 5 revealed that this potentially hazardous asteroid is a binary system. Spectroscopic observations with the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias on 2024 February 16 indicate that 2020 BX _12 is an S-complex asteroid (Bus–DeMeo taxonomy). We present the results of shape modeling and orbit fitting based on the radar observations. The system consists of a primary of a diameter ∼205 m and a ∼50 m secondary revolving around their common center of mass. This size places the system among the smallest 10% of known binary asteroid systems. The orbital period of the system is >40 hr. The semimajor axis is >375 m. This binary system, like many other binary near-Earth asteroids, features a spheroidal primary spinning near the breakup point, indicating likely formation through spin-up and fission and migration from the main belt. 2020 BX _12 was the last binary asteroid discovered at Arecibo. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2632-3338 |