Asteroids in Virgo cluster

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

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.

 

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:

 

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

 

Name	V	Dia (km)	OP (y)	OR (ua)	Classification	Dis
Michaelcarr	17.5	?	2.65	1.0 to 2.0	Hungaria	1998
Dugan	16.8	9.6	3.52	2.0 to 2.5	Inner Main Belts	1979
1994 AP	17	4.2	3.52	2.0 to 2.5	Inner Main Belts	1994
Locarno	15.6	12.7	3.67	2.0 to 2.5	Inner Main Belts	1973
Beategordon	16.1	7.6	3.68	2.0 to 2.5	Inner Main Belts	1990
Mucha	17	9.2	4.16	2.5 to 2.82	Middle Main Belts	1989
1996 VO1	17.4	7.4	4.17	2.5 to 2.82	Middle Main Belts	1990
Bandusia	13.8	36	4.36	2.5 to 2.82	Middle Main Belts	1906
1992 DG	17.1	10.6	4.47	2.5 to 2.82	Middle Main Belts	1992
Sayama	15.9	17.2	4.82	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	1990
Ireland	17.3	12	5.03	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	1988
Morosovia	14.6	33.6	5.22	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	1931
1990 UZ	16.9	14.5	5.23	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	1990
Nihon Uchu Forum	18.4	?	5.25	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	2000
Wachholz	17.2	9.4	5.26	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	1990
2000 QF105	16.8	13	5.28	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	2000
Zauberflote	17.5	11.4	5.3	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	1990
2000 SO213	17.9	16.2	5.55	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	2000
Evita	16.6	36.3	5.58	2.82 to 3.27	Outer Main Belts	1948
Peiroos	16.4	87.5	11.69	4.6 to 5.5	Jupiter 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

Morosovia

Peiroos

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!