The Orbit and Density of the Jupiter Trojan Satellite System Eurybates–Queta
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Brown_2021_Planet._Sci._J._2_170.pdf
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Published version
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Author(s)
Brown, Michael E
Levison, Harold F
Noll, Keith S
Binzel, Richard
Buie, Marc W
Grundy, Will
Marchi, Simone
Olkin, Catherine B
Spencer, John
Statler, Thomas S
Date Issued
2021
Journal
The Planetary Science Journal
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Citation
Brown, Michael E, Levison, Harold F, Noll, Keith S, Binzel, Richard, Buie, Marc W et al. 2021. "The Orbit and Density of the Jupiter Trojan Satellite System Eurybates–Queta." The Planetary Science Journal, 2 (5).
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Final published version
Abstract
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.
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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/AC07B0
