Asteroids in Virgo cluster

4h40 exposure (L:56x300s)
Acquired on the 28th of February 2019 with Samyang 135mm

Asteroids in Virgo cluster
Setup: Samyang 135mm F/2, AZ-EQ6, QHY163m gain=100, QHYCFW2-M, AstroLink 4 mini, QHY5L2M. Software: APT, Stellarium scope, EQ MOD, PHD2

This image is the result of 56 images stacked using the “Maximum” stacking mode of Deepskystacker. It contains many traces of solar system objets. Let’s see in this post the main characteristics of those objects using Aladin desktop, SkyBoT and  JPL Small-Body Database Browser.

Preprocessing and identification

The “Maximum” stacking mode of Deepskystacker consists of keeping in the stack all the images information so as to reveal transient objects like air planes, satellites, asteroids or even comets.

DeepskyStacker software – Maximum stacking mode setting

 

To identify the objets, I followed instructions given in my previous post: Identify asteroids with Aladin and SkyBoT and annotated manually the image for obtaining the result below:

Asteroids In Virgo - 20190228 - Samyang135 - QHY163m - 2

 

Not less than 20 asteroids!

Once the asteroids identified, I listed their main paramaters in the table below:

Name: Asteroid name (if exist) or ateroid reference

V: Apparent magnitude at the date of shooting (28th of February 2019)

Dia: Asteroid diameter in km

OP: Orbital Period in year

OR: Orbital radius in astronomical unit (1au = average sun-earth distance)

Classification: Group or family of asteroids

Dis: Discovery date

 

NameVDia (km)OP (y)OR (ua)ClassificationDis
Michaelcarr17.5?2.651.0 to 2.0Hungaria1998
Dugan16.89.63.522.0 to 2.5Inner Main Belts1979
1994 AP174.23.522.0 to 2.5Inner Main Belts1994
Locarno15.612.73.672.0 to 2.5Inner Main Belts1973
Beategordon16.17.63.682.0 to 2.5Inner Main Belts1990
Mucha179.24.162.5 to 2.82Middle Main Belts1989
1996 VO117.47.44.172.5 to 2.82Middle Main Belts1990
Bandusia13.8364.362.5 to 2.82Middle Main Belts1906
1992 DG17.110.64.472.5 to 2.82Middle Main Belts1992
Sayama15.917.24.822.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts1990
Ireland17.3125.032.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts1988
Morosovia14.633.65.222.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts1931
1990 UZ16.914.55.232.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts1990
Nihon Uchu Forum18.4?5.252.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts2000
Wachholz17.29.45.262.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts1990
2000 QF10516.8135.282.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts2000
Zauberflote17.511.45.32.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts1990
2000 SO21317.916.25.552.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts2000
Evita16.636.35.582.82 to 3.27Outer Main Belts1948
Peiroos16.487.511.694.6 to 5.5Jupiter Trojan (L4/L5)1975

 

Asteroids orbital distribution

Asteroids depicted above are primarly located in the Main asteroid Belt which lies between Mars and Jupiter. This Belt is subdivided in several layers (Inner, Middle and Outer) and is bordered by others asteroids families like the Hungaria’s for example. More far away from the sun is located the Trojan family which is part of the Jupiter orbit and located on its L4 and L5 Lagrange points (ie places on the orbit 60° ahead and 60° behind Jupiter).

Orbits

In the aim of displaying some orbits, I choosed 3 asteroids among the 20 found:

  • Michaelcarr from the Hungaria family
  • Morosovia from the Outer Main Belt
  • Peiroos from the Jupiter Trojan family

Orbits below are displayed using JPL Small-Body Database Browser. The method for obtaining such orbits is provided in previous post: Identify asteroids with Aladin and SkyBoT.

Michaelcarr

Orbit provided by https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi

Morosovia

Orbit provided by https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi

Peiroos

Orbit provided by https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi

Plotting these orbits gives immediately a nice idea of these asteroids. This is much more concrete than a simple trajectory observed on a stacked image!

 

 

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