Oral Presentation

The Asteroid Spin Rate Study By Using PTF Data

Chan-Kao Chang (NCUIA)

The 10k Asteroid Rotation Periods Project (10kARPs) aims to collect 10,000 asteroid rotation periods by using dedicated asteroid rotation period survey conducted on the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). The data will be used to understand asteroid spin rate distribution and its relations with other properties and parameters (i.e., orbital elements, taxonomic types and asteroid groups). In addition, we will use 10kARPs to search binary asteroid and km/sub-km-sized super-fast-rotator (SFR) candidates. The former is critical to measure the asteroid mass, and the later is of importance to understand the asteroid interior structure. Here, we report the preliminary result of the first three asteroid rotation period surveys (i.e., 2013 Feb, 2014 Jan and 2014 Feb). We found one sub-km-sized SFR, 2005 UW153, that indicates asteroid not just bounded by its gravity and tensile strength and cohesiveness should be taken into account as well, and the spin rate distribution is in a deviated Maxwellian form.