Polarimetric survey of Phaethon with PICO Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Shinnaka Y.
  2. Kasuga T.
  3. Furusho R.
  4. Boice D.C.
  5. Terai T.
  6. Noda H.,Namiki N.
  7. Watanabe J.-I.
  8. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

As a function of the solar phase angle, {alpha}, the linear polarization degree (referred to the scattering plane, P_r_) of solar system objects is a good diagnostic for understanding the scattering properties of their surface materials. We report the P_r_ of Phaethon over a wide range of {alpha} from 19.1{deg} to 114.3{deg}. The derived phase-polarization curve shows that the maximum of P_r_, Pmax, is >42.4% at {alpha}>114.3{deg}, a value significantly larger than those of the moderate albedo asteroids (Pmax~9%). The phase-polarization curve classifies Phaethon as B-type as well as M- and K-type asteroids, in the polarimetric taxonomy, being compatible with the spectral property. We compute the geometric albedo, p_v_, of 0.14+/-0.04 independently by using an empirical slope-albedo relation, and the derived p_v_ is consistent with previous results determined from mid-infrared spectra and thermophysical modeling. We find no periodic variation of P_r_ in our polarimetric data in the range from 0 up to 7.208hr (e.g., less than twice the rotational period). We also find significant differences between our P_r_ during the 2017 approach toward Earth and that in 2016, implying that Phaethon has a region with different properties for light scattering near its rotational pole.

Keywords
  1. Asteroids
  2. Polarimetry
  3. Optical astronomy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2018ApJ...864L..33S
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/864/L33
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/864/L33
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.18649033

Access

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http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/864/L33
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/864/L33
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/864/L33
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History

2019-09-27T13:42:47Z
Resource record created
2019-09-27T13:42:47Z
Created
2020-04-29T08:16:56Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr