J/A+A/678/A167 occultation events by (307261) 2002 MS4 (Rommel+, 2023)
A large topographic feature on the surface of the trans-Neptunian object
(307261) 2002 MS4 measured from stellar occultations.
Rommel F.L., Braga-Ribas F., Ortiz J.L., Sicardy B., Santos-Sanz P.,
Desmars J., Camargo J.I.B., Vieira-Martins R., Assafin M., Morgado B.E.,
Boufleur R.C., Benedetti-Rossi G., Gomes-Junior A.R.,
Fernandez-Valenzuela E., Holler B.J., Souami D., Duffard R., Margoti G.,
Vara-Lubiano M., Lecacheux J., Plouvier J.L., Morales N., Maury A.,
Fabrega J., Ceravolo P., Jehin E., Albanese D., Mariey H., Cikota S.,
Ruzdjak D., Cikota A., Szakats R., Baba Aissa D., Gringahcene Z.,
Kashuba V., Koshkin N., Zhukov V., Fisek S., Cakir O., Oezer S.,
Schnabel C., Schnabel M., Signoret F., Morrone L., Santana-Ros T.,
Pereira C.L., Emilio M., Burdanov A.Y., de Wit J., Barkaoui K., Gillon M.,
Leto G., Frasca A., Catanzaro G., Zanmar Sanchez R., Tagliaferri U.,
Di Sora M., Isopi G., Krugly Y., Slyusarev I., Chiorny V., Mikuz H.,
Bacci P., Maestripieri M., Grazia M.D., de la Cueva I., Yuste-Moreno M.,
Ciabattari F., Kozhukhov O.M., Serra-Ricart M., Alarcon M.R., Licandro J.,
Masi G., Bacci R., Bosch J.M., Behem R., Prost J.-P., Renner S., Conjat M.,
Bachini M., Succi G., Stoian L., Juravle A., Carosati D., Gowe B.,
Carrillo J., Zheleznyak A.P., Montigiani N., Foster C.R., Mannucci M.,
Ruocco N., Cuevas F., Di Marcantonio P., Coretti I., Iafrate G., Baldini V.,
Collins M., Pal A., Csak B., Fernandez-Garcia E., Castro-Tirado A.J.,
Hudin L., Madiedo J.M., Anghel R.M., Calvo-Fernandez J.F., Valvasori A.,
Guido E., Gherase R.M., Kamoun S., Fafet R., Sanchez-Gonzalez M.,
Curelaru L., Vintdevara C.D., Danescu C.A., Gout J.-F., Schmitz C.J.,
Sota A., Belskaya I., Rodriguez-Marco M., Kilic Y., Frappa E., Klotz A.,
Lavayssiere M., Marques Oliveira J., Popescu M., Mammana L.A.,
Fernandez-Lajus E., Schmidt M., Hopp U., Komzik R., Pribulla T., Tomko D.,
Husarik M., Erece O., Eryilmaz S., Buzzi L., Gaehrken B., Nardiello D.,
Hornoch K., Sonbas E., Er H., Burwitz V., Waldemar Sybilski P., Bykowski W.,
Mueller T.G., Ogloza W., Goncalves R., Ferreira J.F., Ferreira M., Bento M.,
Meister S., Bagiran M.N., Tekes M., Marciniak A., Moravec Z., Delincak P.,
Gianni G., Casalnuovo G.B., Boutet M., Sanchez J., Klemt B., Wuensche N.,
Burzynski W., Borkowski M., Serrau M., Dangl G., Kloes O., Weber C.,
Urbanik M., Rousselot L., Kubanek J., Andre P., Colazo C., Spagnotto J.,
Sickafoose A.A., Hueso R., Sanchez-Lavega A., Fisher R.S., Rengstorf A.W.,
Perello C., Dascalu M., Altan M., Gazeas K., de Santana T., Sfair R.,
Winter O.C., Kalkan S., Canales-Moreno O., Trigo-Rodriguez J.M., Tsamis V.,
Tigani K., Sioulas N., Lekkas G., Bertesteanu D.N., Dumitrescu V.,
Wilberger A.J., Barnes J.W., Fieber-Beyer S.K., Swaney R.L., Fuentes C.,
Mendez R.A., Dumitru B.D., Flynn R.L., Wake D.A.
<Astron. Astrophys. 678, A167 (2023)>
=2023A&A...678A.167R 2023A&A...678A.167R (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Solar system ; Minor planets ; Occultations ; Observatory log
Keywords: Kuiper belt: objects: individual: 2002 MS4 - methods: observational
Abstract:
The physical characterization of the trans-Neptunian objects is
essential for improving our understanding of the solar system's
formation and evolution. Stellar occultation is a ground-based
technique successfully used to determine some of the TNOs' fundamental
physical properties with high precision, such as size and shape. This
work aims at constraining the size, shape, and geometric albedo of the
dwarf planet candidate (307261) 2002 MS4 through the analysis of nine
stellar occultation events. Using multichord detection, we also
studied the object's topography by analyzing the obtained limb and the
residuals between observed chords and the best-fitted ellipse. We
predicted and organized the observational campaigns of nine stellar
occultations by 2002 MS4 between 2019 and 2022, resulting in two
single-chord events, four double-chord detections, and three events
with three to up to sixty-one positive chords. We derived the
occultation light curves using differential aperture photometry, from
which the star ingress and egress instants were calculated. Using 13
selected chords from the 8 August 2020 event, we determined the global
elliptical limb of 2002 MS4. The best-fitted ellipse, combined with
the object's rotational information from the literature, constrains
the object's size, shape, and albedo. Additionally, we developed a new
method to characterize topography features on the object's limb. The
global limb has a semi-major axis of 412±10km, a semi-minor axis of
385±17km, and the position angle of the minor axis is
121°±16°. From this instantaneous limb, we obtained 2002
MS4's geometric albedo of pV=0.1±0.025 using an
HV=3.63±0.05mag and a projected area-equivalent diameter of
796±24km. Significant deviations from the fitted ellipse in the
northernmost limb are detected from multiple sites highlighting three
distinct topographic features: one 11 km depth depression followed by
a 25+4-5km height elevation next to a crater-like depression with
an extension of 322±39km and 45.1±1.5km deep. Our results present
an object that is ∼138km smaller in diameter than derived from thermal
data, possibly indicating the presence of a so-far unknown satellite.
However, within the error bars, the geometric albedo in the V-band
agrees with the results published in the literature, even with the
radiometric-derived albedo. This stellar occultation allowed for a
multichord measurement of a large topography in a TNO for the first
time.
Description:
Tables B1, B2, and B3 contains the observational circumstances of
the stations that participated in the August 8, 2020 stellar
occultation campaign. Table B.1 lists the sites which obtained a
positive detection, table B.2 presents the negatives, and table B.3
shows the coordinates of the stations that did not acquired data due
technical failure or bad weather. Table B4 present the observational
circumstances of the stations that had a positive detection on the
other eight stellar occultation events recorded by the collaboration.
Table B.5 presents the observers that had negatives or bad weather
conditions on the another eight stellar occultation events (except 8
august 2020).
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
tableb1.dat 298 59 Observational circumstances of all observatories
that detected the stellar occultation by
MS4 on 8 August 2020
tableb2.dat 296 40 Observational circumstances of all the stations
that acquired data of the 8 August 2020 event
but did not detect the occultation
tableb3.dat 187 16 Observational circumstances of all the sites
that tried to observe the 8 August 2020 event,
but experienced bad weather or technical
issues and did not acquire any data
tableb4.dat 221 19 Observational circumstances of all stations that
detected 2002 MS4 in a stellar occultation on
the other eight events
tableb5.dat 208 24 Observational circumstances of all the stations
that did not detect 2002 MS4 or experienced bad
weather during the other eight stellar
occultations
files/* . 5 LaTeX version of the tables
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: tableb1.dat tableb2.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 33 A33 --- Obs Observatory
35- 56 A22 --- City Nearest city
58- 71 A14 --- Country Country
73- 86 F14.10 deg LAT Latitude of the observatory
87-100 F14.10 deg LON Longitude of the observatory
102-107 F6.1 m Alt Altitude of the observatory
109-130 A22 --- Tel Telescope
132-137 F6.4 m Aper Aperture
139-154 A16 --- Filt Filter
155-176 A22 --- TSource Time source (1)
177-200 A24 --- Inst Instrument
201-209 F9.5 s Exp Exposure time
210 A1 --- n_Exp [*] Note on Exp (2)
211 A1 --- l_Cycle [~] Limit lfag on Cycle
212-220 F9.5 s Cycle ?=- Cycle
221 A1 --- n_Cycle [*] Note on Cyle (2)
222-229 F8.4 s Corr ? Correction
231-298 A68 --- Observs Observers
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Note (1): The symbol * indicates that this information is from the observatory
https://montsec.ieec.cat/ webpage.
Note (2): * indicates that this data was taken in drift scan mode.
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: tableb3.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 34 A34 --- Obs Observatory
36- 46 A11 --- City Nearest city
48- 54 A7 --- Country Country
56- 67 F12.8 deg LAT ? Latitude of the observatory
69- 81 F13.9 deg LON ? Longitude of the observatory
83- 88 F6.1 m Alt ?=- Altitude of the observatory
90- 99 A10 --- Tel Telescope
101-105 F5.3 m Aper Aperture
107-115 A9 --- Filt Filter
117-132 A16 --- TSource Time source
134-154 A21 --- Inst Instrument
156-187 A32 --- Observs Observers
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: tableb4.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 10 A10 "date" Date Observation date
12- 35 A24 --- Site Site/Country
37- 38 I2 deg LATd Latitude
40- 41 I2 arcmin LATm Latitude
43- 49 F7.4 arcsec LATs Latitude
51 A1 --- LAT- [NS] Latitude orientation
53- 55 I3 deg LONd Longitude
57- 58 I2 arcmin LONm Longitude
60- 66 F7.4 arcsec LONs Longitude
68 A1 --- LON- [EW] Longitude orientation
70- 76 F7.2 m Alt Altitude
78- 95 A18 --- Tel Telescope
97-101 F5.3 m Aper Aperture
103-111 A9 --- Filt Filter
113-115 A3 --- TSource Time source
117-135 A19 --- Inst Instrument
137-142 F6.3 s Exp Exposure time
143 A1 --- l_Cycle [~] Limit flag on Cycle
144-150 F7.4 s Cycle Cycle
152-155 F4.1 s Corr ? Correction
157-221 A65 --- Observs Observers
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: tableb5.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 10 A10 "date" Date Observation date
12- 38 A27 --- Site Site/Country
40- 57 A18 --- Reasons Reasons for no detection
59- 60 I2 deg LATd ? Latitude
62- 63 I2 arcmin LATm ? Latitude
65- 69 F5.2 arcsec LATs ? Latitude
71 A1 --- LAT- [NS] Latitude orientation
73- 75 I3 deg LONd ? Longitude
77- 78 I2 arcmin LONm ? Longitude
80- 84 F5.2 arcsec LONs ? Longitude
86 A1 --- LON- [EW] Longitude orientation
88- 95 F8.3 m Alt ? Altitude
97-116 A20 --- Tel Telescope
118-122 F5.3 m Aper ? Aperture
124-137 A14 --- Inst Instrument (1)
139-141 F3.1 s Exp ? Exposure time
143-145 F3.1 s Cycle ? Cycle
147-149 A3 --- TSource Time source
151-208 A58 --- Observs Observers
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Note (1): +: SHOC: This instrument is described by Coppejans et al.
(2013PASP..125..976C 2013PASP..125..976C).
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Acknowledgements:
Flavia Rommel, flaviarommel(at)on.br
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 17-Aug-2023